


All I Want is to Fly with You (All I Want is to Fall with You)

by Monochrome_Sky



Series: Why Don't We Rewrite the Stars? [1]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Chloe Decker, BAMF Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), BAMF Mazikeen (Lucifer TV), BAMF Trixie Decker, But also, Canon Rewrite, Chloe KNOWS, Fix-It of Sorts, Lucifer (TV) Season/Series 01 Rewrite, Lucifer is Trixie's biological dad, Multi, Rating May Change, Soft Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Warnings May Change, a lot of shit could have been avoided, because let's be honest, if Chloe just knew the truth, one-night stand gone wrong (or right depending on who you ask), some influences from the comics, tbh it's mostly soft Lucifer, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-04-07 02:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19075867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monochrome_Sky/pseuds/Monochrome_Sky
Summary: In a twist of fate, Beatrice Decker's biological father is someone entirely different.





	1. The Best Night of Your Life

 

_8 years (and some months) ago…_

18:00

Among the dying rays of the sun, a young blonde sat in an empty bar near the Los Angeles coastline. She nursed a bottle of beer in one hand and gazed listlessly at nothing, another two (empty) bottles beside her. Despite her morose expression, it was undeniable that she was attractive—pale-skinned, eyes a shade between blue and green, and a beauty mark at the corner of her right eye.

And Lucifer, well, he’d always had a hard time staying away from anything (or anyone) that caught his interest. So he made his way inside the bar and approached the woman.

“Hello.”

The woman blinked, raised a brow at his attire, and said… “Hi.”

“I couldn’t help but notice—”

“Sure you couldn’t,” the woman said dryly with a roll of her eyes, and Lucifer’s grin grew wider.

“—that this seemed to be an awfully early time to be drinking,” he teased.

She tilted her head at him, a little impressed smile on her lips. “That’s exactly the point,” she gestured with her beer. “The plan is to get so drunk tonight that I wake up with a massive hangover and physically can’t go to work.”

Lucifer settled into the seat beside her, that bright grin still etched onto his face. “And may I ask, why?”

The woman gave him a considering look. She took one sip from her beer then laughed a little to herself. “Okay, why not.” Then she turned to him, “I just broke things off with my fiancé today because I finally realized how much of a douche he is.” There. She hoped that would get him to finally leave her alone.

But to her surprise, the British-sounding man in the white 70s get-up actually looked sorry. “My, how dreadful. Well, at least you found out how much of a douche he was before you actually tied the knot, so to speak.”

The woman was floored. “Y-Yeah. Yeah,” she repeated, stronger this time. “That is pretty lucky of me, isn’t it?” She drank from her beer again and pointed at the man. “You make a great point.”

“Well, I have been known to make many of them,” he preened and she had to laugh.

“Hey, what’s your name?” She leaned forward.

He leaned towards her as well. “Lucifer Morningstar.”

A funny look crossed her face and she narrowed her eyes. “Is that like… a stage name?”

“God-given, I’m afraid. And your name is…?”

Her smile turned odd at his words, but hey, it wasn’t like his name was any weirder than the clothes he wore, and her gut hadn’t warned her off from him. So she just shook her head with a laugh. “Chloe.”

Lucifer accepted it as is, without the insistence of a surname. That clued Chloe in that he wasn’t looking for anything permanent, and the thought comforted her. Then Lucifer gestured to the bartender. “Three rounds of your best tequila shots for me and the lady please,” and he winked at her.

Chloe leaned on her hand and stared at him. She was no stranger to attractive men trying to pick her up, and usually she would decline, but her goal _was_ to get drunk off her ass tonight. And if she could save money while she was at it, then she didn’t mind letting the guy pay for her drinks. She had to make something clear first, however. “For the record, while you seem _nice_ and all, I don’t exactly trust you, so don’t expect me to go home with you tonight.”

“Why Ms. Chloe, I would never presume to bring you home with me. A hotel would suffice, after all,” he smirked. “And I have all night to gain your trust darling.”

Chloe was reluctantly impressed by the man. His arrogant words were tempered by his charming demeanor, so where others would usually come off as dicks, he simply exuded confidence and charisma. However, even with this observation, she doubted that she would change her mind about sleeping with him. So if he wanted to waste his money on a lost cause, then it was his funeral.

The bartender set down the shots. Lucifer picked up two of them and handed one to her. “Now, why don’t you tell me all the sordid little details of your break-up. Did he cheat on you during his bachelor’s party? I find that’s the most common reason.”

Chloe held her shot contemplatively. It seemed like he was serious about gaining her trust. And it couldn’t hurt to tell him—he was a complete stranger, after all, and it wasn’t like they would see each other again after tonight. Still… “If I tell you about me, you’ve gotta tell me about you.”

Lucifer’s brow raised. “Alright then. I’m no stranger to a little give and take. You tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine. Deal?”

She couldn’t help but grin. “What, you mean like, a Deal with the Devil?”

Lucifer’s smile was ecstatic. “Exactly.” He held out his glass, “So, is it a deal, Chloe?”

She shrugged and held out her shot glass. “Why not.” That seemed to be the theme tonight, she felt, as they clinked their glasses. “You have a deal, Lucifer.”

And they downed their shots in one go.

* * *

 

 

19:00

“What. A. Douche.”

Chloe laughed. “Right?”

“You have the patience of a Saint, my dear. I mean, first he steals your promotion—”

“Okay, wait, he didn’t _steal_ my promotion.”

“That’s not how I understood it. Both of you solved that problem, whatever it was, because you _still_ won’t tell me your occupation,” he gave her a pointed look but Chloe simply smiled innocently and mimed zipping her lips shut. Lucifer chuckled, “Anyways, _both of you_ solved that problem, but then he gets all the credit for it, _and_ he gets promoted, while you stay in place. How is that _not_ stealing your promotion?”

Chloe shrugged as she trailed a finger over the rim of one of the glasses between them. “If both of us got equal credit then I don’t think either of us would’ve been promoted.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then it’s even _more_ reprehensible that he took _all_ the credit!” Lucifer exclaimed. “And that was a month ago, yes? And then just two weeks later, he gets you into trouble with your superiors—”

“ _Actually_ ,” Chloe cut in, remarkably cognizant despite how much alcohol she’s drunk, “he just recommended that I transfer out of his… team… because he was concerned that I was getting… too emotional.”

Lucifer gave her yet another look. “And were you?” He asked knowingly.

She gave him a partly bitter, partly sad smile. “I mean, I don’t think I was, but well, he didn’t see it that way. But I wanted to work on that… project… because it reminded me of what happened to my dad and I guess…” She raised her hands. “I don’t know. Yeah, I was pissed off, but I don’t think I was getting _too emotional_.”

“And that’s exactly my point! He had no right—absolutely _no right_ —to do that to you. And let’s not forget that final nail in the coffin of your now-dead engagement,” Lucifer gestured to the bartender for more shots. “Which happened only today, in fact.” He raised both eyebrows at her. “He left you at the altar.”

Chloe snorted despite the sharp pang in her heart at the imagery his words evoked. “Wrong again. We were just going to sign some papers at court.”

“Which would have tied you two together forever in this lifetime, in holy matrimony, yada, yada, yada,” he waved his hand dismissively. “He still didn’t show up.”

The bartender set down some more shots in front of them and Chloe picked one up. “He said he was working,” she said dryly, then drank the shot. The alcohol burned a path down her throat and her eyes prickled. “And when he finally showed up, I told him I was done, and threw my ring at his face.”

Lucifer clapped slowly, a proud look on his face. “And that is exactly what he deserved, my dear.”

Chloe huffed out a breath and picked up another glass. “I’ll drink to that,” and she clinked their glasses together and downed the shot. “Thanks for listening, by the way.”

“Mm, pleasure’s all mine. Your story was quite riveting, anyways.”

She scoffed, but for some reason, she also couldn’t stop smiling. “You know, today was depressing, but tonight’s been… really good. And it’s because of you, so, thanks for that too.”

An odd look crossed Lucifer’s face as Chloe checked her watch and made a sound of surprise. “Wow, and it’s only been a little over an hour.” She turned her gaze back to him. “So, what’s your story?”

Lucifer was visibly taken aback. “Pardon?”

“That was our deal, right? I tell you my story, you tell me yours. So what brought you here?”

“Why, none other than a lonely, beautiful lady in need of companionship of course,” he grinned at her as he brought another shot to his lips.

“Right,” she laughed. “And do you make a habit of walking around LA in the evening, looking for lonely ladies in need of companionship?”

“Mm, no, actually. I only arrived at LA very recently.”

She made a noise of acknowledgement. “I’d like to say that explains the suit, but no, it actually doesn’t. _Where_ did you get that?”

For the first time that night, Lucifer had a frown on his face, his expression bemused. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Well, I haven’t seen fashion like that since the… seventies, I think? _Maybe_ the eighties.”

“ _Eighties_ …” He murmured to himself. “Of course. No wonder.” He placed the heel of his palm against his forehead and shook his head.

Chloe’s brows furrowed. “Lucifer? You okay?”

“Well, ‘okay’ isn’t the word I’d use for my current state, but I will be once I—” He stopped mid-sentence as an idea occurred to him, and he turned to Chloe with a wide smile. “My dear, can you do me a favor?”

* * *

 

 

20:00

“Mm… nope,” Chloe shook her head.

“Are you sure? I quite like this color.”

“Sure, if you want to burn people’s eyes out of their heads.”

“Ugh,” Lucifer made a face as he adjusted his cuff-links. “I left Hell to get away from the torture. I’m certainly not bringing the torture out of Hell, so no.” He turned to re-enter the fitting room.

Chloe shook her head as she shifted in her seat, an empty bottle of water in her hand. She felt marginally more sober, enough that she wondered just what she was doing browsing for Burberry suits with an eccentric man she just met.

On their way to the mall, in her car, she asked him a few more questions, and with every answer it became clearer that he really believed that he was the Devil. Chloe wasn’t sure what to do with the realization. Should she call a mental hospital and have him admitted? Should she just leave him be until he proves to be harmful to himself and/or society? Should she just ignore this problem and continue to drink herself into a stupor?

(The last option really tempted her.)

“Alright, how about this?” Lucifer walked out of the fitting room.

Chloe blinked then looked over him critically. She gestured with her finger, a silent order for him to give her a twirl. He chose a surprisingly well-fitted black suit this time, no vest, and it was paired with a starch-white long-sleeved button-up.

“No necktie?” She asked.

Lucifer made a face as he unbuttoned his shirt at the throat. “I find it too constricting.”

She hummed. “Yeah, that suits you more. But I think you could use a pocket square.”

“A what?” He questioned, but Chloe had already turned around to look for one. He followed after her.

She hummed. “This should do,” she turned to him and he stood still as she affixed a piece of red fabric into the empty pocket of his suit jacket. “A devilish red,” she giggled.

Lucifer smirked.

Chloe’s other option, she found, was to play along. Why not, after all. Tonight, she was a single woman coming out of a disastrous almost-marriage, and the Devil decided to pick her up at a bar.

Lucifer clapped his hands. “Alright, then, my dear. After I go pay for this suit, how’s about I repay you for your services?”

Chloe gave him a skeptical look. “… How?”

“Well, I noticed as I listened to you tonight, that you are a remarkable woman. You are intelligent, beautiful, and hardworking, and you most certainly didn’t deserve to be treated so terribly by your douche of an ex-fiancé.”

She felt her cheeks burn at his compliments but still kept her guard up. “Thank you…” And she prompted him to continue.

“Yes, well, with that in mind, in return for helping me adapt to this decade’s fashion sense, I would like to give you…” He smirked. “The best night of your life.”

Chloe waited, but apparently that was all he had to say. “And… what does that mean?”

Lucifer gave her an affronted expression. “The best night of your life, my dear! Anything you want, I will give to you. I will treat you to the best of the best—which is how you _deserve_ to be treated, might I add.”

She blinked. “Anything,” she repeated incomprehensibly.

“ _Yes_ , anything you want, anything at all, I am at your disposal.” He waved his hands down his figure as though to show himself off. “I’m _very_ good at fulfilling desires, after all.”

Chloe huffed a laugh. “Uh… I dunno, Lucifer.”

“Come now, there must be _something_ you want.”

She ran a hand over her head. “Honestly, I just really want to forget the shitty day I had, so…”

“Wait,” Lucifer held up a finger. His eyes glittered mischievously. “If that’s the case, then I know exactly what to do.”

* * *

 

 

21:00

The thump of the bass synchronized with every rapid beat of Chloe’s heart, so much so that it felt like it was music that rushed through her veins. Her attire was different—gone were the slacks and floral print blouse, for Lucifer had bought her a beautiful dress that matched her eyes—or so he said. It hugged her every curve just right but was comfortable to breathe in and soft to the touch. Her sensible brown shoes had been replaced with high heels that helped make her legs appear longer than they actually were.

It had been a long time since she last danced in a night club. And while it was fun, she also wondered where Lucifer was. He helped her relax, helped her let go of her worries and just enjoy herself. Inexplicably, she found that she wanted to see him.

When she left the dance floor, she saw him by the bar, entertaining a group of beautiful ladies. The sight made her frown, although she wasn’t sure why, and just as she debated between the merits of approaching him or returning to the dance floor, he spotted her. She watched as he quickly excused himself from the group, much to their obvious disappointment, and made his way to her.

“Well, look who’s finally loosened up and let herself have _fun_ ,” he teased.

Chloe smiled back up at him. “All thanks to you.”

“Well…” He actually sounded somewhat bashful. “You’re very much welcome, my dear.”

Still smiling, she gently grasped his hands. “Buy me a drink?”

He maneuvered her hands so that they held the crook of his elbow. “Whatever you desire.”

Chloe mulled his words over in her head. She waited until they held their drinks before she asked, “So, the whole desire schtick, is that like… your thing?”

He quirked an odd smile at her. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Well I’ve seen you asking people what they desire, and they always answer, and then it’s like they’re confused. Like they’re wondering why they told you.”

“Ah! Yes, see, that’s actually my gift from God,” he leaned forward. “I have the ability to draw out people’s forbidden desires.”

Chloe’s brows furrowed. “So, how does it work?”

“Allow me to demonstrate,” he leaned back slightly and focused on her eyes. “Chloe, tell me… What else do you desire tonight?”

She stared back into his eyes, waiting for… something. Compulsion, maybe? At any rate… “Nothing’s happening,” she said.

Lucifer blinked and frowned at her, and creases formed on his forehead. Chloe had the drunken urge to smooth them out but held back. Then he grabbed a lady who was walking by, smiled at her, and said, “Hello.”

The woman stared back up at him in a daze. “Hi…”

“I hope you don’t mind telling me what it is you desire tonight?”

“I… I… I want to have sex in the men’s bathroom.”

Chloe looked away from her, visibly awkward, and took a big gulp from her drink.

Lucifer let go of the woman and turned to look at Chloe. “Strange.”

“You’re telling me,” she shook her head. “I’ll never understand why people like public sex.” She should probably watch the woman and make sure she _doesn’t_ have sex in the men’s restroom, but she was off-duty, and she didn’t really want to work right now.

“Not that,” Lucifer dismissed. “I don’t affect you.”

She blinked. “Okay.”

“Okay? That’s all you have to say? ‘Okay’?”

She stared at him as she took a sip from her drink. Lucifer rolled his eyes and drank as well.

Suddenly, he spoke. “You know, come to think of it, you don’t look at me that way.”

“What way?”

“With carnal fascination!”

Chloe mouthed a silent ‘oh’. “I don’t?”

Lucifer gave her a look.

Chloe giggled. “Sorry, sorry. Um… but you’re very attractive?”

“Exactly! Every human I’ve met exhibited at least some modicum of attraction towards me, but I’ve observed nothing of that sort from you.” He lifted his glass to his lips then his eyes widened. “Wait, you’re not one of my siblings, are you?”

She choked on her drink. “What? No! I’ve never even met you before tonight!”

“Right. Right…”

She rolled her eyes. “Hey, stop worrying over it. We’re supposed to be having fun, right? Why don’t you go back to your adoring audience and find someone you can… you know…” She gestured vaguely.

Lucifer’s grin turned naughty. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“You know…”

“I most certainly do not know. You’ll have to spell it out for me.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Have sex with.”

Lucifer laughed, but then it trailed off into a sigh. “Unfortunately, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I promised to be at your disposal tonight. I can’t give you the best night of your life if I’m fornicating somewhere that you’re not.”

Despite the crude wording, Chloe felt her heart warm at the sentiment. But she also felt exasperated by it. This man certainly brought out many conflicting emotions from her.

“What do you want?” She wondered. What was this man, who was frustrating and amusing and an all-around enigma, doing in LA? What brought him here?

“Hmm?”

“You said you came to LA recently, right? Why’d you come here, of all places?”

Lucifer shrugged. “No particular reason. I just found myself here when I left.”

“Left where?” She tilted her head.

He smirked. “Hell.”

Strangely enough, Chloe felt that wasn’t a lie. “So… what do _you_ desire?”

His smile turned odd. “Pardon?”

“Well, you mentioned before that you’re good at fulfilling desires. But what about what _you_ want?”

His lips parted in surprise. “I…”

Chloe blinked. He looked so… fragile, then. “You’ve left Hell,” she said gently. “What do you want, now that you’re out?”

* * *

 

 

22:00

“Chloe, where on _Earth_ are we?”

She shushed him. “Where we’re technically not allowed to be.”

“Oh,” and even though it was dark inside the building they snuck into, she thought that she could see his mischievous smile. “You’re actually quite the naughty girl, aren’t you?”

“Or just drunk,” she mumbled to herself. She’ll probably regret this once she’s sober, but that was just tough luck for Sober Chloe. Drunk Chloe really, _really_ wanted to do this. “Okay, I think these are the lights.” She hit one of the switches and a few of the lights turned on.

A grand piano in the middle of a stage was revealed. Lucifer approached it with wonder. He realized then that they had been walking around blind backstage. “Where are we?”

“An old auditorium,” Chloe answered as she followed him, and he turned to look at her questioningly. She gazed around with nostalgia. “I used to practice here. Dancing, singing, acting…” She turned to him with a smirk. “I still remember how that one exit to the back alley never really locked properly.”

Lucifer smiled back at her beatifically. Chloe blushed in response, bowed her head, and awkwardly gestured to the piano. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

He walked towards the piano with confidence. Then he pulled out the bench and sat down in one smooth, fluid movement, and lifted the lid to reveal ivory and ebony keys. He pressed down on a few notes and, pleased that it was tuned, proceeded to play.

Chloe gravitated towards him, the music enchanting, the man even more so, and before she knew it, she sat beside him.

The last few notes faded into silence. Chloe couldn’t help but notice how Lucifer seemed more relaxed now. Slowly, he turned to her. “Do you play?”

She hummed as she touched the keys with one hand. “Not really.”

“What does that mean?” He asked with a tiny laugh.

“Well… In my three years of lessons… This is the only song I remember,” and she started to play the first few notes of ‘Heart and Soul’.

Lucifer huffed a laugh. “You _must_ be joking.”

Chloe looked at him with a wide smile and shook her head. She turned back to the piano and played the same notes again, in an attempt to remember the full song.

“Alright then,” he sighed and turned the simple tune into a complex duet.

Neither knew how long they played the song, but both seemed happy to do so. Eventually, however, even that faded into silence. Chloe leaned into Lucifer’s side and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Are you happy?” She asked.

He made a small sound of amusement. “I think I’m supposed to be the one asking you that. This is your night, after all.” He paused. “But… thank you, for this. I believe I owe you another favor, again.”

“You don’t. It’s for free.”

“Are you sure?”

Chloe lifted her head to look at him with a soft smile. “Yeah.”

Neither knew who leaned forward first, but at some point, their lips touched and turned into a kiss.

Chloe broke it off for a second to ask, “Do you want this?”

“I want this,” Lucifer whispered back.

* * *

 

 

02:00

Lucifer breathed heavily as he collapsed beside Chloe on the bed.

There had been a hotel across the street from the auditorium, and they had made their way there like a pair of horny, giggling teenagers. It didn’t take long for Lucifer to get them a room, and they hadn’t even made it past the entrance hall of the suite before their clothes came off.

Now here they were, many hours and rounds later.

“Wow,” Chloe gasped beside him.

Lucifer couldn’t stop the grin on his face or the breathless laugh that left him. “I must say, you kept up with me quite well.”

“I didn’t even know I could do all that.”

He turned on his side to look at her, grin still firmly in place. “Always glad to help you discover new things, my dear. I practically invented pleasurable sex after all.”

Chloe looked up at him, still in a mild daze, although clarity steadily returned to her gaze. “Invented…? Oh. Right. You’re the Devil.”

“Indeed I am,” Lucifer nodded.

Chloe yawned. “Water,” she mumbled, then nudged him.

He blinked. “Oh. Alright.” Slowly, he left the bed and went to the minifridge to grab a bottle. He returned and handed the drink to the blonde. Chloe wasted no time in grabbing it, and as she sat up and drank, she patted the spot beside her, a wordless gesture that ordered Lucifer to resettle into the bed.

Lucifer shook his head. “Bossy, aren’t we,” he said, but there was a smile on his face.

Chloe hummed as she screwed the cap of the bottle back on and set the drink on the bedside table. When Lucifer was finally beneath the bed sheets, Chloe practically collapsed onto his chest, her head tucked under his chin. Lucifer blinked and, after a moment’s hesitation, he rested one hand on her head, and his other hand beneath his head. He idly noticed that her hair was softer to touch compared to his.

“Is our deal still on?” She asked suddenly.

“Which deal?”

“The ‘I tell you my story, you tell me yours’ one. You haven’t really told me much about yourself.”

Lucifer hummed and Chloe felt his chest vibrate. When the vibration stopped, his heartbeat became predominant again, and she realized that she found it soothing.

“Where do you want me to start?” He asked.

“Wherever that’s okay with you. Haven’t exactly told you everything ‘bout me.”

He stayed silent for a long time.

“Lucifer?” Chloe asked. “If you don’t wanna share, that’s okay too.”

“No, we made a deal. And my word is my bond. I just… I honestly don’t know where to start.”

She hummed in acknowledgement. After a moment, she prompted, “You said you left Hell before you came to LA. What were you doing in Hell?”

“Oh? Going for the deep, nasty questions already?”

She stayed silent. Then, she felt, more than heard, Lucifer sigh.

“My father kicked me out.”

That made Chloe shift from her spot so that she could look at him in the eyes. “Why?”

Lucifer’s hand started to trail over her hair. “I didn’t want to be what _He_ wanted me to be, anymore. I wanted… the choice to become whoever _I_ wanted to become. He didn’t like that. I rebelled… and found my whole family turning against me. Then He kicked me out and I found myself alone in Hell.”

Chloe raised her hand to hold the one Lucifer had on her hair, her gaze intent on his eyes, but Lucifer didn’t seem to be looking at her anymore. It was like he was somewhere far away. His memories, perhaps.

“I was angry at my father. I did a few more things to spite him. And before I knew it, I was being blamed for every bad thing that happened to humanity.” Lucifer seemingly snapped back to himself, and he looked surprised to find Chloe staring at him. He blinked, and slowly said, “I was being blamed for things I had no hand in.”

It took a while for Chloe to arrange her thoughts. “The Devil made me do it…?” She thought aloud.

Lucifer smirked, but it slowly faded under her gaze. “I’ve never killed anyone, nor have I prompted others to kill. The worst I’ve done is delegate punishments in Hell.”

Chloe’s brows furrowed. “And… do you enjoy it? The punishing, the torturing?”

He gave her a flabbergasted look. “It’s a _job_. And something I’m forced to do because my father sent me there. Hell is as much my punishment as it is human souls’.”

She nodded seriously. Sober Chloe was going to have a field day when she remembers this night.

“You… Do you believe me?”

“For tonight.”

“For tonight… Ah, I see,” he smirked, though this one seemed sad, and Chloe couldn’t understand why.

She laid back down on his chest. A yawn escaped her again.

“Tired, are we?” Lucifer asked.

“You have too much stamina…” She mumbled as she closed her eyes.

* * *

 

 

05:00

“Playing around with humans again, brother?”

Lucifer rolled his eyes as he registered his brother’s presence in the room. “Bloody Hell…” He paused. “And it’s actually only one human this time, _brother_.”

Amenadiel raised a brow, clearly exhibiting the fact that he didn’t care. “It’s time for me to take you back to Hell. Again.”

“ _Allow you_ , to take me back. Again,” Lucifer half-heartedly rebutted as he exited the bed.

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“I will, thank you very much,” he said as he got dressed. And after he did, he gazed down at the blonde, still fast asleep. “Amenadiel… Can you give me a moment? I need to make a phone call.”

* * *

 

 

06:00

When Chloe woke up, it was to an empty bed and a breakfast cart.

* * *

 

 

_5 years ago…_

Lucifer walked through the streets of Los Angeles in a similar black suit he wore the last time he was in the city. He grinned at every man and woman that caught his eye. After a while, he stopped before a reflective window to observe himself. He fixed his cufflinks, adjusted his collar, and made sure his red pocket square was firmly in place.

Although his suit was new, the pocket square was the same one he bought three years ago, during his last visit on Earth. That thought made him pause, and he pressed a hand over the pocket at his left breast. Then he shook his head and shook off the odd feelings the thought evoked in him.

He noticed a human staring at him. “What? Did I mess up my suit?”

“You have _wings_ ,” the human said.

Lucifer blinked and glanced behind him. “What the—? Bloody thing has a mind of its own these days,” he muttered as he retracted them. Then he smiled down at the human, “There we go. That better?”

* * *

 

 

“Did Paolucci put you up to this?” Chloe asked the dark-skinned man in shades suspiciously. “You know it’s a crime to file a false report, right?”

“You think I would lie,” the man said, his tone offended.

Her brows furrowed in confusion and just as she was about to ask him to clarify his situation, her phone rang. She glanced at the number and rolled her eyes. “Sorry, excuse me, Sir. I need to answer this.” She turned around and walked a few steps away. “Detective Espinoza,” she greeted neutrally.

A cough on the other end of the call. “Officer Decker. No, uh, Chloe. I called because I, uh, I won’t be able to watch Trixie tonight.”

“Okay,” she acknowledged.

“I’m sorry, okay, it’s just… a body was found on Franklin and Cahuenga—”

“Franklin and Cahuenga?” She repeated with a frown. “That’s… weird. A guy just came in reporting a mugging near there. I wonder if it has anything to do with—” She turned to where she left the man, only to discover that, at some point, he’d left.

“With your homicide…”

* * *

 

 

“Detective Espinoza!” Chloe called out from outside the yellow tape.

Dan turned around and hurriedly walked to her. “Officer Decker,” he greeted, somewhat cautiously.

“Remember that robbery I mentioned earlier? The one that happened around the corner?”

“Yeah.”

“I searched the area and found this,” she took out a plastic bag from her coat. “It looks like a key fob. I don’t know to what but it looks like there’s blood on it. I think there’s a good chance it’s connected to your homicide.”

Dan breathed out. “Could be, but even if it is, all signs point to a random attacker. Serial mugger on a spree.” He turned and gestured to the corpse behind him. “Just like my guy who resisted and ended up dead.”

“That’s the guy that got mugged?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s built like a tank.” Chloe frowned as she ducked underneath the yellow tape and entered the crime scene. “And so was the guy that reported the robbery. They’re the last two guys that I’d try to mug.”

“Yeah, well, a gun can be a pretty great equalizer.”

Chloe shook her head as she looked over the body. “I don’t think this was random, Detective.”

Dan stared at her. “… Okay. I’ll look into it but… only when I’m done. It’s gonna take a while.”

“Okay, then why don’t I get a jump on it?”

He made a sound of disapproval.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m going to do it whether you like it or not. I have to show initiative if I want to make Detective, after all.”

“… Right. Let me know what you hear, Officer Decker.”

* * *

 

 

Lucifer stopped to admire the sounds of the piano. “Oh, brother, listen to that.” He sighed in bliss. “Haven’t heard music like that since… Well, since three years ago on the Earthly plane, actually.”

“Ah, yes, the last time you visited Los Angeles. You don’t usually come back to cities you’ve visited before.”

“What can I say. This place just has a certain draw for me.” He took a sip of his drink. “For reasons I can’t fathom.”

And when he paid the musician to leave and took a seat before the piano, he found himself playing the first few notes of ‘Heart and Soul’ before veering into a different song.

* * *

 

 

“Lucifer! What’s the plan?”

The name made Chloe pause but then she shook her head.

It couldn’t be him. It just couldn’t be.

She refocused on her task.

* * *

 

 

“Detective Espinoza,” Chloe called out as she approached Dan.

“Yes, Officer Decker?” He looked up and spotted a tattooed, bald man. “Who’s that?”

“One of Tío Sorrento’s thugs.”

“The… fight promoter you were telling me about.”

“Yeah, who was seen arguing with Aiden Scott just before he was killed. Tats here has multiple warrants out and after a little squeeze, I found out that Tío fixes fights for the Sarkisians.”

“As in, the Sarkisian Crime Family?”

“Yeah, so what if Tío tried to fix Aiden’s fight, he refused, and he killed him for it?”

“Well, I’d say that’s a pretty interesting theory. And I sense that there’s an ‘and’ coming.”

“ _And_ I’d like to talk to Tío’s lawyers, see if I can maneuver a deal.”

“Not a good idea.”

“Why?”

“Cause you don’t have any actual proof yet, Chlo—”

She gave him a sharp look and he sighed.

“Officer. If you’re wrong, you get nothing and Tío knows we’re on to him.”

Her lips thinned stubbornly.

Dan sighed again. “We’ll look into Tío, okay? But right now, you’ve got to be patient.”

* * *

 

 

Lucifer turned on the TV in Tío Sorrento’s living room and a movie titled ‘Hot Tub High School’ came up. Intrigued, Lucifer stayed on the channel. When the ‘Starring Chloe Decker’ showed, Amenadiel exited the bedroom.

Lucifer sighed as he turned off the TV. “So, has he got your necklace?”

* * *

 

 

“It’s been two hours,” Dan stated. “I seriously doubt Tío Sorrento is going to show up. Especially now that he knows he’s a suspect in Aiden Scott’s murder.”

“He swore to Charlotte Richards that he had nothing to do with the murder and that he’d help us find the killer,” Chloe replied, never taking her eyes off the monitor.

“So he’s just going to drop a bunch of cash off into a locker?”

“Yes, he will, because he wants to clear his name. And whoever picks up the cash either killed Aiden Scott or knows who did.”

“And if you’re wrong?” Dan raised an eyebrow. “Tío doesn’t show up, he alerts his bosses about our investigation, and our entire case against him is destroyed.”

Chloe frowned and still refused to look at Dan.

Dan sighed. “Going to see Charlotte Richards… That was a big gamble. And I _do_ want you to make Detective—”

“You have a funny way of showing it,” she muttered.

“But,” he spoke a little louder, “I’m worried that this is going to set you back.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a risk I’m willing to take. And my gut says I’m right.”

At that moment, Tío showed up to drop cash into the locker.

* * *

 

 

A week after the arrest of Aiden Scott’s murderer, Chloe found herself morbidly curious about the name she heard during her investigation. So when she had some free time, she looked into it.

It wasn’t the first time she searched for documentation or records about a ‘Lucifer Morningstar’, but it was the first time she got results. However, as far as she could tell, his paper trail began only five days ago.

“Is he here to stay?” She asked herself.

She felt conflicted. Should she tell him about Trixie? Or should she not?

Would the Devil even make a good father?

* * *

 

 

_2016 (Present)_

Chloe looked through the window of the car wreck and took note of the body.

“Want to hear what I’ve got so far?” Dan called out as he approached her.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Lieutenant said this was my case.”

“Yeah, Chloe, it is your case, but try not to take too much time. It’s an easy one.” He gestured to the corpse. “That’s our bad guy. Eddie Deacon, low-level drug dealer. Found these in his pocket,” he held up some drugs with one hand, “and found this,” he held up a similar packet with his other hand, “in Delilah’s purse. So obviously drug-related. She probably owed him a bunch of cash or something. She’s not exactly selling out stadiums these days.”

“How do you know he’s low-level?”

Dan glanced at the car wreck. “Look at his car.”

“Did you look at his watch? That thing ain’t cheap.”

“It’s probably _fake_ ,” Dan protested. “Look,” he took a step towards her and Chloe stood her ground. “There’s gonna be a lot of attention on this one, Chloe. I wouldn’t pick at it too hard. Not after Palmetto Street.”

“I asked for this case _because_ of Palmetto Street, Dan.”

Dan bowed his head in acknowledgement.

“So, anyways, any witnesses?”

“A guy named Lucifer Morningstar. He owns the nightclub over there—Lux. Delilah was shot right outside.” A troubled look came over his face. “He said that he was with her when she was shot, but that’s impossible, because he would’ve been dead too if he was. My bet is that he’s traumatized.”

Chloe turned away from Dan so he wouldn’t see how she closed her eyes. She took another deep breath.

Of course. Of _course_ he was a witness. She should have known when she found out that the shooting happened outside of Lux.

And she believed Lucifer’s statement about being with Delilah when she was murdered. No way could mere human bullets kill the Devil.

She wondered if he even remembered her.


	2. Are You the Devil?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First half of 1x01: Pilot, rewritten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Other people: *writes beautiful one-shots in 1k words or less*
> 
> Me: *writes a 12k-word chapter and still isn't finished with the first episode*

 

_5 years ago…_

After Chloe confirmed the existence and residency of the man named Lucifer Morningstar, she headed home, conflicted as to what was the right thing to do.

If Lucifer had been… human, then it would only be fair to inform him of the existence of his daughter as soon as possible. But that was the thing, wasn’t it? Lucifer wasn’t human—he was the _Devil_.

A short and slightly hysterical laugh left Chloe’s mouth as she walked up to her mother’s house. “The Devil is my baby daddy,” she muttered to herself in disbelief. Even after all this time, the realization still affected her. They said single-parenthood was difficult, but Chloe would wager that her situation was somewhat more challenging than most people’s.

She unlocked the front door and entered the house. “Trixie? Julia? I’m home!” She called out as she removed her gun, badge, and handcuffs from her person, and hid them so that Trixie couldn’t get her sticky hands on them.

A thump and a sharp squeal of “Mommy!” came from somewhere inside the house, and a joyful smile bloomed on Chloe’s face. She hurriedly removed her uniform jacket, but before she could hang it up on the coat rack, a child-sized bullet sped from around the corner and barreled into her. Chloe laughed as she stabilized her footing, her hands wrapped around her daughter’s slight shoulders as the three-year-old tightly gripped her leg and smiled up at her toothily.

“Hi mommy!” Trixie chirped.

“Hi monkey!” She greeted back, and when she looked up, she spotted the sitter a few feet away. Julia looked ready to leave.

“Trixie didn’t give you any trouble, right?” Chloe asked.

“No,” Julia denied. “She was an absolute angel.”

Chloe’s smile turned a bit awkward. _‘You have no idea,’_ she thought. “Thank you, Julia,” she said.

“You’re always welcome, Ms. Decker.”

Chloe gently pulled Trixie away from her leg so that she could squat down and look at the girl in the eye. Then she whispered, “Nothing happened?”

Trixie shook her head. “No wings, no eyes,” she whispered back.

Chloe kissed the girl’s cheek. “That’s my monkey,” she said, then smiled. “You know what that means?”

“Chocolate?” Trixie asked hopefully.

Chloe’s smile grew and she nodded once. “Chocolate.” After dinner, of course.

Trixie squealed and lightly bounced on the balls of her feet. Chloe stood up then, and Trixie immediately latched onto her leg again. The young mother huffed out a laugh but humored the three-year-old. She began to walk towards the sitter as best as she could with the added weight and, as she did, she took out her wallet and produced a wad of bills, held together with a paper clip. She handed the bills to Julia. “Here’s the payment for the last month. Thank you so much again.”

Julia accepted the money gratefully. “Anytime, Ms. Decker,” she said brightly. “I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Okay. See you next time?”

“Next time,” Julia nodded as she exited the house and closed the door behind her.

Chloe looked down at Trixie, who looked back up at her with twinkling eyes and an impish grin. She shook her head, though her expression remained fond, and began to walk to the kitchen with her monkey still on her leg. Trixie giggled with every other step she took.

“What do you want for dinner, you little hellion?” Chloe asked affectionately, and tried not to think too much about how literal the endearment was. She had to get used to this.

“Tacos!”

Chloe stopped walking to look at Trixie incredulously. “Really? Again? We’ve been eating tacos for a week now.”

“Tacos!” She repeated, more insistently.

“Okay, how about this. Since it isn’t a good idea to eat the same thing every day, how about we eat tacos once a week? Like, say, every Tuesday? We can call it Taco Tuesday!”

Trixie pouted up at her. “But… tacos.”

“ _But_ , if you eat tacos every day, you might not want to eat tacos ever again when you’re older,” she tried to explain. “You’ll be sick of it.”

The little girl still didn’t seem to understand, so Chloe switched to a new tactic. “You know, if we eat tacos every day, you’ll never get to eat toast again… or pancakes… or _eggs_ …”

Trixie’s eyes widened. “No!”

“No? No to what? No more eggs?”

She rapidly shook her head. “No more tacos,” she said, although she sounded a little sad.

Chloe ran her fingers through the girl’s hair. “No, monkey, we can still eat tacos. Just not every day, okay? Only on Tuesdays. Taco Tuesdays, remember?”

“Taco… Tuesdays…” She tried out the words.

“Exactly. Does that sound good to you?”

Trixie hummed, then smiled, and then nodded eagerly.

Chloe smiled back as she resumed her walk to the kitchen, and Trixie went back to giggling every time she raised her leg. “ _And_ … since it’s Tuesday today… we can eat tacos!”

“Yay!”

* * *

 

That night, after dinner and Trixie’s bedtime, Chloe took out all the information she had compiled on the “Devil” and “Lucifer”.

Throughout history, every story of good and bad claimed that the “Devil” was the embodiment or personification of evil. Meanwhile, the name “Lucifer” bore similar yet mixed results, if only because the name was also associated with the “morning star”, Venus.

Then there were the stories that claimed that Lucifer was a fallen angel who God cast out of heaven because of his vanity and pride. Chloe cross-referenced that with her own experience with the Devil—specifically, their shopping trip. And yes, he was vain and proud, but those weren’t exactly… _evil_ traits.

Chloe recalled how, at that point, she started to feel like her research was going nowhere, so she bought a Bible and read it cover to cover. Then she listed everything she could find on the Devil, which basically amounted to a handful of appearances and mere mentions.

And then…

And then she gave up. Because her research never led her to any conclusions. All records that referenced the Devil were dated centuries or even millennia ago. The possibility of mistranslation (or lost translations) was exorbitantly high. And the Bible, which was supposed to be her most accurate and informative source, only served to make her more skeptical. It was a literal collection of “books” from various authors who often lived in eras or cultures in which wine was drunk more than water. Who’s to say that their testimonies were accurate even if they were correctly and perfectly translated? Chloe couldn’t deny the possibility of them writing whilst inebriated.

And even if they _were_ accurate and correctly translated, the “evidence” she had of the Devil’s alleged misdeeds were all circumstantial at best. Nothing concrete tied him to the crimes he was accused of because, as much as people wanted it to be, “faith” and plain “belief” did not count as proof of a crime.

_“The Devil made me do it…?”_

At worst, the Devil was just some sort of… celestial tempter.

_“I was angry at my Father. I did a few more things to spite him. And before I knew it, I was being blamed for every bad thing that happened to humanity… I was being blamed for things I had no hand in.”_

Chloe let his voice filter through her thoughts. He had spoken factually, distantly… but he’d also sounded… sad. Troubled.

She returned to her file.

She also had to take into consideration the fact that many of her sources had undergone massive edits throughout the years. A prime example was how the Bible’s opinion on the Devil went from “the accuser appointed by God to test mankind’s faith” to “God’s equal and adversary”.

_“I didn’t want to be what He wanted me to be, anymore. I wanted… the choice to become whoever I wanted to become. He didn’t like that. I rebelled… and found my whole family turning against me. Then He kicked me out and I found myself alone in Hell.”_

_“I was angry at my Father.”_

Chloe took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. God was real. God was real, and He was a Father, and it sounded like He wasn’t a very good one. The Bible, surprisingly, supported this.

She opened her copy and turned to one of the verses she bookmarked before. “ _A jealous and avenging God…_ ” She murmured. “ _The Lord is avenging and wrathful… takes vengeance on His adversaries… reserves wrath for His enemies…_ If kicking someone out of Heaven and into Hell isn’t wrathful, then I don’t know what is.” She scowled. “What kind of father makes his own son his enemy…?”

What would that kind of being do to His granddaughter?

She flipped to the page bookmarked with ‘Nephilim’.

“… _the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose…_ ” She read aloud. “ _The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them_ …”

‘Sons of God’… _could_ refer to angels. Did that mean Trixie was a Nephilim? Chloe had tried to research more about the term, but pop culture interpretations weren’t exactly what she would call viable sources. And academic discourse posited that the Nephilim mentioned in the Bible weren’t the children of angels and humans, but of the sons of Cain and daughters of Eve—which was weird, but again, it was the Bible. She had long accepted that the Bible was weird.

And the more Chloe read, the more she doubted. All her research amounted to was a study in contradictions. Zealots wrote about God’s less than positive qualities as if this confirmed His greatness and the Church itself wasn’t the embodiment of ‘good’, as much as they liked to claim that the Devil was the embodiment of evil. Their own history showed multiple accounts of their followers hunting non-believers down and slaughtering them like animals. All of which had been done in the name of their God.

_“I’ve never killed anyone, nor have I prompted others to kill. The worst I’ve done is delegate punishments in Hell.”_

_“And… do you enjoy it? The punishing, the torturing?”_

_“It’s a job. And something I’m forced to do because my Father sent me there. Hell is as much my punishment as it is human souls’.”_

The things that people said about the Devil contradicted everything Chloe researched and witnessed. What kind of Devil walks up to a lonely woman in a bar and listens to her rant about her failed engagement? What kind of Devil buys a girl a dress, shoes, jewelry, and shows her how to have fun _just_ because she helped him find a new suit to wear?

What kind of Devil gives her—a _nobody_ —a beautiful, wonderful daughter who brings her all the joy in the universe?

The Devil gave her the best night of her life and the greatest gift she had ever received. It sounded ironic, and impossible, but the fact was: it was true. It was her reality now.

Nothing she saw of him that night even _hinted_ towards evil.

Chloe perused her files once more. Her eye caught one of Lucifer’s many titles.

‘Prince of Lies.’

She closed her eyes and pressed her hands against her temples. She couldn’t let her emotions get in the way of the investigation. She had to remain objective.

Which meant that she couldn’t deny the possibility that everything about that night was a lie.

(Even though her gut told her that it was all real.)

Chloe opened her eyes, leaned back into her chair, and crossed her fingers over her stomach. “He lives in Los Angeles now,” she muttered as she looked at the ceiling. “At this point, all I can do is conduct a stake-out.”

Her stomach coiled in fear. So many things could go wrong. This was the _Devil_. Whether he was evil or not was debatable, but what was undeniable was that he was a wild card. And wild cards didn’t exactly equate to “safe to engage”. There was a chance that, if she stepped even a toe out of some invisible line, she would lose her life.

But there was also a chance that she could lose her daughter.

If Lucifer was evil like history said he was, then she and Trixie would have to leave Los Angeles and hope that he never finds them. But if he wasn’t… If everything she observed of him from that night was his true self… Then maybe he could help her? Help her make sure that God wouldn’t take Trixie away from her, maybe even help raise her— _their_ —daughter? Bookstores didn’t exactly sell instruction manuals on how to care for your half-angel child.

He could at least tell her whether or not Trixie was the Antichrist.

* * *

 

 

_2016 (Present)_

He was playing the piano.

Chloe slowly yet steadily made her way down to Lux’s dance floor, her right hand casually laid on her gun holster while her left arm hung limply at her side. Her posture was straight and confident, as though she had walked through this club and gone down these stairs many times before.

To be fair, she actually had. Her personal investigation into the Devil may have officially ended three years ago, but she had been to Lux enough times in those two years of stake-outs to have grown familiar with it.

Not to mention she did still visit occasionally. When she had the time and opportunity.

She just… never approached _him_ until now.

When she found herself beside the piano, she cleared her throat, and Lucifer paused his playing.

“Yes…?” He drawled.

“Lucifer Morningstar, I presume,” Chloe said, and she was relieved to hear her voice remain steady.

“That _is_ me, yes,” he said as he looked up with a smirk, which minutely faded as he took her in.

Chloe did her best to ignore his reaction and focus on her job. That always helped. “Detective Decker,” she introduced herself. “I’m in charge of the investigation into Delilah’s case. Can I ask you a few questions?”

Lucifer continued to stare at her with unfathomable, unblinking eyes.

After a moment, Chloe had enough. “Mr. Morningstar?” She asked stiffly.

Finally, Lucifer blinked, and he cleared his throat. “Right. Yes, well, ask away, Detective.”

She nodded once and took out her pen and notepad. “Okay. Then—”

“I’m sorry, have we met before?” He blurted out. “You look… familiar.”

She raised a brow and inwardly hoped that he didn’t have the ability to hear how fast her heart was beating. “Excuse me, I thought I was the one asking the questions here?”

“And you are,” he acknowledged with a grin, “but I never said I wouldn’t be asking any questions of my own.”

Chloe’s eyes roved over his face. Dark haired, dark eyed, and impossibly attractive. He hadn’t changed at all—not since the first night she met him, all those years ago, or the last time she saw him, just a scant few weeks ago, performing in this very club.

The only thing that did change was that, now, she spoke to him with the knowledge of what he was.

Chloe took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. Priorities. She had _priorities_ , damn it. A woman had just been murdered and there was a slight possibility that the killer was still at large so she needed to prioritize the case.

But since it seemed like the Devil wouldn’t let this go and since she wanted to get this over with…

“We have met before, actually,” she admitted. “Eight years ago.”

Her body was tense as she waited for his reaction. She wondered if he knew that their fling resulted in a child. She wondered if he would blink vacantly at her, the only indication she needed to confirm that he didn’t remember her.

She didn’t expect her admission to cause the Devil’s eyes to widen.

Lucifer slowly stood up from the piano bench and she took a step back to maintain their distance.

“Chloe?” He breathed out, and there was this look in his eyes that made her heart constrict.

She nodded curtly.

A bright smile bloomed on his face and Chloe suddenly thought, _‘Oh. Oh, so that’s where Trixie gets it.’_

“Unbelievable!” He exclaimed. The smile stayed in place as his eyes trailed up and down her figure appreciatively, and a bit lewdly. “You’re a _Detective_. Oh, I never would have guessed.”

Chloe, unsettled by his gaze yet unwilling to back down, shifted her weight to her other foot and crossed her arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing _offensive_ ,” he hurriedly assured her. “I simply assumed that you were a corporate worker or some such. But you were actually a _Detective_ …”

“Actually,” she interjected, “I was just an officer when we met.” And then she bit the inside of her cheek because why did she volunteer that information so readily?

“So you _did_ get promoted after all. That’s wonderful news!”

“Yeah,” she began slowly, surprised that he still remembered something like that. “Yeah, I’m a Homicide Detective, now, and I’m on the clock. Which means…”

“—That you’re the one investigating Delilah’s murder,” Lucifer turned even more gleeful at the realization and Chloe didn’t know what to make of the unholy light in his eyes. “Even better news. I’d rather you than that other Detective who spoke to me.”

Chloe frowned. “You mean Detective Espinoza?”

“Was that his name?” Lucifer asked unconcernedly as he sat back down on the piano bench and crossed his legs. “I don’t quite recall. He was a rather boorish fellow. Kept insisting that Delilah was murdered because of drugs. I told him he was full of shit,” he said with a sly smile.

Chloe uncrossed her arms and once again readied her notepad and pen. _‘Prioritize the case,’_ she thought. _‘Note down his reactions. Look at the facts. Come to your own conclusions.’_

(Was it still the case she was thinking of or the conundrum that was the Devil?)

“So, you’re saying you think she _wasn’t_ murdered because of drugs. How well did you know Delilah, exactly?”

“Well, she used to work here a few years back. I would occasionally accompany her while she sang,” he gestured to the piano before him, “then she became a big star and someone decided to end her life,” he finished with a tight smile. Then he tilted his head away from her and elegantly reached for his glass of alcohol.

Chloe, who had long mastered the art of note-taking without actually looking away from a witness, observed him quietly. If he was self-conscious of her scrutiny, he didn’t show it.

“Did you know the shooter?” She asked.

“No,” he said. He took a brief sip from his drink then set his glass back down on the piano. “Unfortunately, I had never seen the cretin before in my life.” He glanced at her. “But we did have an interesting chat just before he kicked off.” He adjusted his position on the bench. “I asked him why he did it.”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed as she wrote. “So the Devil likes to play cop, huh,” she muttered under her breath.

But Lucifer heard her, because a startled laugh left him. “No, Detective, the Devil just likes to play in general,” he grinned. “As I’m sure you well know.”

Chloe gave him a look that said exactly what she thought about his insinuation of their one-night stand: _‘This is not the time nor place, and I am not impressed.’_

She liked to think she’d gotten past the fact that she had slept with the Devil.

“So… you had a conversation… with a dead guy,” Chloe attempted to return her train of thought to the investigation, even though part of her brain tried to accept that the Devil could call on the souls of recently deceased murderers. And of course he could, he ruled Hell, she should really keep that in mind. Right, so, how in the world was she supposed to put that in a police report without sounding insane?

Fortunately, Lucifer’s next words made her job easier. “Oh, no, he wasn’t quite dead. His soul hadn’t crossed the threshold.”

Chloe nodded slowly. Okay. So the guy was still alive when he was questioned. Did that mean the Devil could sense when someone was about to die?

_‘Focus, Decker.’_

“Uh-huh. So. You asked him why he did it,” she prompted. “Did he answer?”

“He said money, of course,” Lucifer said as he picked up his glass again. “You humans. You really love your money, don’t you?” He derisively stated before he drank.

Humans. He literally just—Chloe took a deep breath. She’d been doing that a lot lately. “Yes. Yes, we do. You know how greed gets.”

“All too well, unfortunately,” Lucifer concurred.

Chloe’s gaze dropped to the floor and she scratched her head. This was so weird. She felt like she should be hysterical, but it’s been, what, seven years since she found out? Hysteria felt outdated at this point. “Right. Okay, listen, what you’ve told me so far only further points to the whole thing being drug-related. As in, Delilah kept the guy busy but when she couldn’t pay up, he decided to get his money’s worth another way.”

Lucifer tensed.

Chloe bit her lip and knew she had crossed a line. She continued contritely, “So unless you have more information…”

“I do, actually. He also told me, ‘I just pulled the trigger’. Now don’t you think that’s interesting?”

Her face remained impassive. “Those could just be the delirious words of a dying man, you know.”

Frustration crossed Lucifer’s face and he shifted restlessly. “Really? _Really_ , Detective? Does not a single thing about this situation seem off to you? This… This neatly-wrapped little present for the LAPD?”

Chloe frowned. Why did it seem like…?

Lucifer continued to rant. “I suppose I expected too much from your corrupt little organization.”

Her eyebrows rose to her hairline. “Excuse me?”

“Will you find the person responsible? Will they be punished? Will this be a priority for you?” The questions came out as accusations. “Because it is for _me_.”

“Why?” Chloe asked.

Lucifer stared at her incomprehensibly.

“Why do you care about this?” She elaborated. _‘You’re the Devil,’_ she almost wanted to add.

He pressed his lips together tightly. “Look, I just… I just do.”

Chloe waited, but when it seemed like he wouldn’t say anything more, she turned away from him. For some reason, she felt disappointed.

Then he spoke up. “Look, I meddled with her career, okay.”

She froze.

Lucifer continued, “I pulled a few strings, cashed in a few favors, and gave her the break she needed to become a star. So I can’t help but think that… that if I hadn’t interfered… she wouldn’t have died.”

Slowly, Chloe turned to face him, and found that his gaze was intent on her. His expression could almost be called earnest. And strangely, it felt like she’d received something she never knew she wanted.

She let herself unwind. “Okay. Okay, fine.”

Lucifer’s brows lightly furrowed. “Fine… what?”

Chloe took a step towards him, which brought them the closest they’ve been since their reintroduction. She glanced around, ensured that they had no eavesdroppers, and lowly said, “I’ll continue the investigation. Besides, I think you’re right.”

He searched her eyes. “You… do?”

She gazed back at him impassively. “Eddie Deacon was found in the backseat of the car. Forensics say that he wasn’t moved there, and drive-by shootings are typically a two-man job—one does the driving, the other does the shooting. Eddie did the shooting but only his body was in the car wreck. No signs of a driver. It’s possible that whoever it was just ran, but if Eddie just “pulled the trigger” like you said, then it’s also possible that the driver purposely caused the car accident to cut off loose ends.” She paused. “Of course, this is all just speculation, and I’ll need more evidence as well as motive, but since there’s a chance that the real murderer is still out there, I’ll continue investigating.” She paused again to allow him to assimilate all of the information she just gave. Then she continued, “And I would appreciate it if you don’t tell anyone what I just told you, because I’m not supposed to.”

She enjoyed the gobsmacked look on the Devil’s face more than she should have.

Lucifer let out a breathless laugh. He looked up at Chloe with twinkling eyes and an impish grin, and Chloe’s throat tightened because Trixie often made the exact same expression.

“It seems, Detective, that I owe you one,” his smile widened. “Again.”

She blinked and her mind briefly brought up a faint memory of another piano—of a favor given freely and a kiss filled with desire.

Her expression softened at the memory, and when Chloe realized this, she hurriedly schooled her face back to neutrality.

But, judging by Lucifer’s wide-eyed look, he’d caught it.

“No, you don’t—” she stopped to clear her throat. “This is me, doing my job. You don’t owe me anything.” She hesitated, but felt that this needed to be said. “And don’t… blame yourself for what happened to Delilah. That’s on her murderer, not on you.”

He continued to stare at her. Distinctly out of her comfort zone now, Chloe moved away from him. “Right—”

He reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Wait.”

Chloe tensed. She barely saw him move. Her airways tightened as her heart pumped adrenaline through her body.

Their eyes locked.

“Why… Why did you tell me all of that? When you’re not supposed to?”

Chloe pulled back and tried to get her breathing under control. “Because I _wanted_ to,” she answered slowly.

“Yes, but _why_ ,” Lucifer insisted.

She used her other hand to pry Lucifer’s grip off her wrist, and to her surprise, he released her easily. “Does it matter?”

Lucifer stubbornly continued to stare.

Chloe sighed. Apparently, if you gave the Devil an inch, he would ask for a mile.

Lucifer Morningstar was just as much a frustrating, amusing, and all-around enigma as when they first met.

That thought assuaged some of her doubts about his character, and she decided to answer him. “Look, you wanted me to continue the investigation, right? But I got the feeling that you wouldn’t trust me if I just _said_ I would, so I told you what I honestly thought—how the whole thing reeks of a set-up—and why I thought that. That’s it.” She took one long look at him. “Do you have anything else? Questions or more information?”

Lucifer stared at her unblinkingly for a long moment (and was that a thing she was going to have to get used to?) then slowly shook his head. “No. No, I believe that’s all the information I have for you.”

“Alright. Here’s my card. Call me if you remember anything else that can help with the case.”

* * *

 

Lucifer flipped the card over in his hand periodically, reminiscent of how he would sometimes flip his Pentecostal coin. His eyes remained locked in the direction Chloe—the Detective—had left in. There was a maelstrom of emotions in his chest and he felt both troubled and intrigued by the realization that none of them were familiar to him.

“Something tells me that you _know_ that Detective,” Maze said as she sauntered up beside him and refilled his glass. “In the… _biblical_ sense,” she purred and looked awfully pleased by her choice of words.

Lucifer finally blinked. He looked down at the card in his hand thoughtfully. “As a matter of fact, I do. We met when I went topside eight years ago.”

“That one-night stand you mentioned?” Maze raised her scarred eyebrow. “Wait, is _she_ the one immune to your charms?”

Lucifer rolled his eyes as he laid the card on the piano and placed his fingers on the keys. He began to play a senseless tune—pleasant to the ears, but with no discernible melody. “She’s not immune to my _charms_ , Maze. She did eventually sleep with me, after all. No, she’s just not affected by my… gift.”

“Uh-huh,” was all Maze said, exhibiting once again her lack of concern. “So is she investigating your protégé’s murder or not?”

“She is.”

Maze turned to him with a frown and took in his almost vacant expression. “Okay. Why the Hell are you bothered by this.”

Lucifer glanced up at her then back to the piano. “I offered her a favor in return for her services and she declined,” he frowned. “Again.”

“You mean she’s done that before?”

“Yes. Yes, she did. When we first met, in fact.”

Maze shrugged. “I don’t see the problem. She’s doing it for free. You should be celebrating.”

“Nothing ever comes for _free_ , Mazikeen,” Lucifer said, partly exasperated, partly frustrated, and partly… something else. Some pleasant emotion that he didn’t quite want to name because of how light it made him feel. “The fact that she seemingly is, is… Well, it’s unsettling, to say the least.”

“Then make sure she’s actually keeping her word and investigating properly. Maybe she just said that to throw you off or something.”

“Yes…” The tune he played trailed off, and to him it sounded like the foundations of a song. He eyed the card on the piano thoughtfully. “Perhaps you’re right…”

* * *

 

“Thanks again for watching over Trixie,” Chloe said to the sitter, then closed the front door and locked it. She sighed heavily, fatigue from the late-night case catching up to her. Slowly, she made her way to her daughter’s room, opened her door, and peeked inside.

She smiled when she saw the little girl’s peaceful face. She moved to close the door, but the rustle of bedsheets made her pause. A sleepy voice called out into the dark.

“Mommy?”

Chloe released a soundless exhale, but still smiled as she entered her daughter’s bedroom. “Hey monkey,” she whispered. “Sorry I woke you up.”

Trixie sat up in her bed, rubbed one eye, and yawned. “It’s fine. Wanted to see you,” she mumbled as Chloe sat beside her.

“You should go back to bed. It’s late.”

Trixie nodded but instead of just lying back down to sleep, she pulled on her mother’s arm until Chloe laid beside her on her bed. Then she snuggled into her mother’s warm embrace, which smelled faintly of smoke but mostly of her favorite fruity perfume. “What were you doing out so late, mommy?”

“Well, monkey, I was out solving a case. Someone got shot and now it’s my job to find the one who did it.”

“Someone got shot? Are they okay?”

Chloe bit her lip. “No. No, they’re not, angel. But… I like to think that, wherever they are now, it’s a better place than where they were before.”

“Oh. So, they _will be_ okay.”

“I… I hope so, monkey. I hope they will be.”

They stayed quiet for a moment. At some point, Chloe began to trail her fingers through Trixie’s soft hair. Trixie, for her part, simply moved closer to her mother.

“Mommy?”

“Yeah, monkey?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something that happened today.”

“What is it?”

“Well, my friends were talking about their parents at recess. And then they started asking me about mine.”

Chloe’s heart dropped to her stomach. “Oh?”

“Yeah, so I started talking about you, but then they asked about my daddy.”

So it came to this, again.

Granted, this wasn’t the first time Trixie asked Chloe about her father. And Chloe had always been honest with her daughter. She told Trixie the story of how they met, and how that one encounter had been enough to ensure her birth.

(Of course, she made sure to leave out the not-age-appropriate part of the tale.)

Anyways, when it came to her father, Chloe was always honest with Trixie. But Chloe also never told her that her father was the Devil. And she also never told her that she knew _where_ her father was. That, if Trixie wanted to, she could meet him.

Chloe never told her because she didn’t want Trixie to _want_ to meet her father. Not until she knew for sure that the Devil wasn’t a danger to either of them. Not until she knew for sure that Lucifer could do right by their daughter.

And as it stood…

“You know, monkey… I met your daddy today.”

Trixie leaned back to look at Chloe with wide eyes. “You did?”

“Yeah, I did. We talked.” Chloe tucked a lock of brown hair behind Trixie’s ear. “I don’t think he knows about you. But if you want me to, I can go tell him, and then we can plan a little get-together? It would be nice to get to know your daddy, right?”

Trixie was silent for a moment and Chloe patiently waited for her response.

“Mommy…”

“Yes?”

“My daddy’s the Devil… isn’t he?”

A lump formed in Chloe’s throat as she stared into familiar brown eyes. “What… makes you say that, baby?”

Trixie pouted. “Mommy, I have _wings_. My eyes get _red_ when I’m mad. You _told_ me my daddy’s name was Lucifer. And I searched the internet and it says that Lucifer’s the name of the Devil.”

A short laugh, filled with disbelief, left Chloe’s mouth. “When did you become a little Detective?”

Trixie gave her a _look_ , and Chloe knew she got that from her. “You’re my _mommy_ , mommy.”

Chloe grinned and started to tickle her daughter. “Why you little hellion!”

Trixie squealed and squirmed as she let out breathless giggles. “Mommy—stop—HAHAHAHAHA—Stoooop!”

Chloe raised her hands. “Okay, okay, I’m stopping.”

Then Trixie tackled her and started to tickle her, too. And Chloe’s resulting squeal and giggles sounded just like her daughter’s.

When their impromptu tickle fight finished, both of them laid on the small bed, breathless and boneless. They shared a moment of peace and contentment.

Then Trixie slowly shifted to her side to look at Chloe. “Mommy?” She began timidly.

“Hm?” Chloe turned her head to gaze at her daughter.

“Is… Daddy isn’t… _evil_ … like the internet says he is… right?”

Chloe raised herself on her elbow. She cupped Trixie’s face and ran her thumb across the child’s cheek. “No, monkey, I don’t… think he’s evil. But you know… I don’t know daddy all that well, either, so…” She gave her a sad smile.

“So we’ll have to get to know him,” Trixie said, and the determination in her voice made Chloe blink. “Both of us.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess we’ll have to.”

Trixie nodded; she had made up her mind. “Mommy, I want to meet my daddy.”

Chloe took a deep breath. “Okay, baby.”

Okay.

* * *

 

 

The next day, at the precinct, Chloe received a call from an unknown landline. She answered it with a frown, “Decker.”

“Detective!” A British lilt greeted. “Glad you picked up.”

“Lucifer?” She asked incredulously.

“The one and only! Really, Detective, how many other handsome Devils do you know,” he chuckled. “Now, I recall you telling me to phone you in the event I remembered any other pertinent information regarding Delilah’s case—”

When she realized what this call was about, Chloe hastily grabbed a pen and paper.

“—told me how Jimmy Barnes, her ex-producer and ex-fiancé, was getting married to a supermodel this weekend. Today, in fact. Quite a coincidence that it’s immediately the day after Delilah died, don’t you think? Well, I thought so, so I even took the liberty of getting the address of the wedding for you—”

Chloe wrote down the details.

“—the ceremony starts in about an hour. That should be enough travel time, yes? Lovely. I’ll see you there. Be ready to make an arrest,” he finished jauntily and hung up.

Chloe stared blankly at the address she just wrote down and then looked at her phone in disbelief.

* * *

 

Lucifer walked outside of the wedding venue just in time to see Chloe step out of her cruiser.

“Detective,” Lucifer smiled tightly. “You’re late to the party. And not even fashionably late, because I just finished confronting our suspect. Tell me, why am I doing your job for you?”

Chloe rested her hands on her hips, her expression a peculiar mix of a frown and bewilderment. “Lucifer, there’s this thing we call ‘due process’, and frankly, _that’s_ the reason I’m late. The details you gave me weren’t enough to get an arrest warrant. I had to research the relationship between Jimmy Barnes and Delilah to figure out why he would even _want_ her dead.”

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “Ugh, _boring_. Not to mention useless. While you were busy with your ‘due process’, I was actually doing something constructive.”

“Oh, like crashing a private event,” she said sarcastically.

“ _Exactly_.”

Chloe stared at his smug smile. “You…” _‘That’s against the law,’_ she desperately wanted to say, but what was human law to the Devil?

So instead, she just ran a hand down her face. Then she sighed and moved to walk past Lucifer.

“Wha—Detective, where are you going?”

“To question Jimmy Barnes.”

Lucifer raised his hands in protest and caught up to her in a few strides. “I _already_ questioned him, he’s not our killer.”

Chloe stopped, then turned to face him. “What makes you say that?”

He raised a brow this time. “Do you really doubt my skill set?”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You… You’re talking about your desire mojo, aren’t you?”

Lucifer frowned, visibly offended. “What a demeaning moniker. But, yes,” he sighed. “If you recall our first meeting then you know that I can be _very_ persuasive,” he smiled.

“Right, right.” She remembered those incidents _very_ clearly. Before she knew he was the Devil, she just thought he was a very skilled hypnotist or something. “People like to tell you things—confess their sins and all that.”

Lucifer slumped and exasperatedly said, “No, not their sins. I have no power over people’s _sins_. I actually get a bad rap for that,” he grumbled.

Chloe blinked.

Lucifer glanced at her, then continued, “Look, I know I didn’t explain it clearly to you when we first met, but my ability is to draw out people’s forbidden desires. The simpler the human, the easier it is. The more complex, the more challenging—and exciting, really,” he had a faint smile on his face now, his tone almost giddy as he spoke of what he could do.

Chloe really, really didn’t know what to make of this Devil. At times he was unnerving, at others sincere, but right now, he just seemed childish.

His tone then turned serious, “But no, the actual sins, the sins are on you people.”

She nodded slowly as she internalized this information. “And I guess by knowing people’s forbidden desires, you’re in a position to give them what they want the most, and you get—what—out of it? Their souls?”

Lucifer groaned. “What is with people and assuming the Devil wants their souls? No, you humans can keep your nasty little souls, I just want a blank cheque. A favor for a favor.”

“So you deal in favors,” she murmured, mostly to herself. It was a little terrifying, knowing that if you made a Deal with the Devil, then he could ask anything from you in return.

But she made a Deal with him before, didn’t she? And it led to the best night of her life.

_“I’ve never killed anyone, nor have I prompted others to kill. The worst I’ve done is delegate punishments in Hell.”_

She hung on to those words like a lifeline.

Chloe took a deep breath and looked at Lucifer in the eye. “Okay, I just really have to know one thing.”

Lucifer frowned. “What?”

Chloe’s heart pounded in her chest. “Have you ever… lied?”

An all too brief second that felt like an eternity, and then—

Lucifer scoffed, oblivious to the weight behind the question. “Is that it? Detective, let me make this perfectly clear to you right now: I _always_ keep my word. I fulfill my end of the bargains I make, I always tell the truth, and I have never lied—despite how many people insist that I am the Prince of Lies. This is a point of pride for me.”

Chloe released the breath she didn’t even know she held. She didn’t know what convinced her, but it was probably how quickly and seriously Lucifer answered her. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t even need to think about it—because it was the truth. And as long as he had his pride, his words would always be the truth.

She didn’t know if she _trusted_ him just yet, but for now, she was willing to try.

“Alright… What did you find out from Barnes?”

“Well, all his blubbering basically amounted to ‘I didn’t kill Delilah’ and ‘You should check out 2Vile’,” he answered, pleased that she was now willing to listen to him.

“2Vile…” Her brows furrowed as she pulled out her phone and sent off a text. “Why did he point fingers at 2Vile?”

“Well, for starters, Delilah dumped ol’ Jimbo for the rapper, and apparently, she and 2Vile fought. A lot,” his eyes darkened. “To the point that he even hit her. _And_ he also surrounds himself with ‘gun-toting morons’, so, there’s that.” He looked at her phone curiously. “And what was that text about?”

Chloe’s phone beeped and she quickly checked the received message. “I wanted to confirm something and I was right,” she glanced at him. “I ran Eddie Deacon’s phone before I left the precinct. 2Vile was the last person he called, two days before Delilah’s murder.”

Lucifer was impressed. “Well, that’s incriminating evidence if I ever saw it.”

“Not really. It’s circumstantial, but enough grounds for questioning. Especially if I include what you found out from Barnes,” she walked to her cruiser, opened the door on the driver’s side, and settled in.

Then the passenger’s door opened and Lucifer moved to sit beside her.

Chloe stared at him blankly. “What are you doing?”

Lucifer looked at her as though _she_ were the one slightly daft. “Sitting in your car… Why? We need to interrogate 2Vile, don’t we? And it seems that you’re the one who knows his address, so—”

Chloe cut him off with a short laugh. “Uh, yeah, no. You’re not part of this investigation.”

“Why not?” He said, offended. “I got you a lead— _two_ leads, in fact. And my abilities make me an indispensable crime-fighting tool.”

That startled another laugh out of her. She couldn’t help it. This situation was just so surreal. “Are you seriously suggesting that I use the _Devil_ as a _crime-fighting tool_?” The reality she knew growing up and the reality she accidentally discovered were colliding, and she wasn’t sure where her mind would be when it finished.

“Well, my dear, I’m offering my services, aren’t I?” He grinned.

Chloe went silent at that.

While the world she knew was collapsing and reforming around her as they spoke… And while the Devil was the point of collision… She couldn’t help but see him as the key to reconciling her two realities.

“Am I gonna be in your debt because of this?” She asked, just to make sure.

Lucifer paused in thought. “No…” He answered slowly. “Because I’m doing this for me, mostly.”

She raised a brow. “Only mostly?”

He shifted in his seat and turned his gaze away from her to look forwards. “It’s for Delilah, too, of course.”

Chloe paused. Then she decisively closed her door and started the engine. “Alright. I’ll bring you along. What about your car?”

Lucifer waved away her concerns. “I can always come back for it later. Or have Maze go and fetch it.”

She nodded absently as she drove out of the wedding venue’s driveway.

In the rearview mirror, she spotted the lone figure of Jimmy Barnes watching them speed away. She frowned, and wondered how long he had been watching them. And why.

* * *

 

When Chloe pulled up on the driveway of 2Vile’s residence, her phone beeped again, and when she checked the message, she frowned. Lucifer noticed this.

“What is it?” He asked as she cut off the engine.

“We can’t enter the premises without a warrant, and it’s going to take a while to get it.”

“What? What do you mean we can’t enter? You have a badge and a gun, don’t you? You can just flash both of them and then we’ll be on our merry little way to punishing a criminal.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Lucifer,” she bit her lip. How to explain this to the Devil? “Look, if I do as you say, then that would go down as abuse of power—which my superiors won’t take too kindly to. And if we just break in and enter… Well, that’s against the law, and again, my superiors will be less than happy with me. At that point, they could just call off the whole investigation because of improper conduct, and then I wouldn’t be able to help you.”

Although, part of her wondered why he even needed, or wanted, her help in the first place. He could have easily taken justice for Delilah’s murder into his own hands, yet so far, he allowed her to do her job. She wondered what made the Devil respect human law even to this extent.

Lucifer was silent for less than a minute. “Fine. What if they just let us in? It’s not breaking and entering if they willingly open their doors to us.”

Chloe frowned. “How is that supposed to happen?”

Lucifer flashed her a smile as he opened the car door. “Watch me.”

She blinked. Then she exited her vehicle, locked it, and went after him. She reached his side just as he rang the doorbell.

A moment later, a butler opened the door. “Good afternoon, Sir, Ma’am,” he greeted with an English accent, which made Chloe raise her brow.

“Yes, we’re here to see the man sadly known as ‘2Vile’… Is he in?” Lucifer questioned impatiently.

The butler’s eyes flickered over to Chloe before they refocused on Lucifer. “I’m sorry, Sir, he’s unavailable. He’s in mourning, I’m afraid.”

Chloe frowned at that. If 2Vile _was_ mourning, then it was unlikely that he was the killer. “Lucifer…”

Lucifer glanced at her then back to the butler. “Right.” He smiled, “I have narcotics for him.”

The butler smiled back. “Right this way, Sir.”

Chloe blinked. “Well, that’s one way to get in,” she muttered as she followed Lucifer inside. And Lucifer must have heard her, because he twirled on his feet just to give her a wink. She raised a brow and shook her head in response.

(She _was_ impressed, but the Devil hardly needed the ego-boost.)

Lucifer… frowned (and she would say ‘pouted’, but the Devil doesn’t _pout_ … right?) then turned around to strut—because it _was_ strutting—behind the butler. Chloe rolled her eyes then sped up her pace so that she walked beside Lucifer.

The further they went into the mansion, the louder the music got. If Chloe had to name it, it was probably hip-hop, or a techno remix of some sort. She glanced at Lucifer and saw the edge of his lip curled into a light sneer. He seemed displeased by something.

They went down the stairs to where the music pulsed the loudest. The area they found themselves in appeared to be the main venue of the gathering. There was alcohol, games, a DJ, and dancing (or rather, indiscreet grinding).

This was most certainly not a mourning party. Chloe’s suspicions rose. She searched the room for 2Vile and hoped that she could question him inconspicuously. If Jimmy Barnes was right and the rapper really did surround himself with armed men, then it would be best not to draw attention to themselves.

“Can someone _please_ turn down this God-awful ‘music’!” Lucifer suddenly bellowed.

The music scratched and Chloe closed her eyes.

“Hello, disc-jockey.” Lucifer sounded exasperated now.

The music stopped.

“Thank you.”

Chloe would have prayed for strength if she had been religious, but as it stood, she just counted to ten. It probably wasn’t a good idea to slap the Devil in the face.

Probably.

“Who’s this clown?” A dark-skinned man lounging on the couch demanded. Chloe took one look at him and immediately knew he was 2Vile.

“He has narcotics for you, Sir. And this is his female companion,” the butler introduced them both.

Chloe’s lips thinned at being introduced as Lucifer’s ‘female companion’, but they were technically undercover. She would have to tread carefully.

2Vile appeared skeptical. Lucifer approached him with all the languid grace of a feline predator.

“My name is Lucifer Morningstar.”

“‘Lucifer Morningstar’,” 2Vile repeated with doubt, then huffed a laugh. He grinned and said, “Now, that’s a good hip-hop name.”

“Well, that offends me,” Lucifer said softly.

2Vile’s grin faded. “What, you don’t like hip-hop?”

“No, I most certainly do not.”

The rapper’s jaw clenched. “Well, that offends _me_.” He stood up.

Chloe tensed and quietly surveyed the room. There were two men with guns on them seated on the couches surrounding Lucifer. There was another armed man farther back. Her eyes flickered all over the room, assessing escape routes and places she could hide (or furniture she could hide behind) in the event of a shootout.

She spared a thought for Lucifer, but he was the Devil. Immortal, invulnerable… he would be fine. He already survived getting shot at by Eddie Deacon. In fact, Chloe was a little pissed at his disregard for her puny mortal self. He really just had to go and rile up the suspect, didn’t he?

She subtly unlatched her gun holster.

“You have a problem with black people?” 2Vile demanded.

“No, not in the slightest. I just hate your music. And, when I say “your music”, I really mean _your_ music. Not the music made by other black people. As, without the blues, there’d be no Devil’s music whatsoever.”

Chloe’s face screwed up in reaction to her mental, _‘What?’_

“There are, of course, many giants in the field. Just not you—Am I being clear?” Lucifer cut off his own rant to ask, wondering if he’s made his point.

2Vile gave him a humorless chuckle. “Yeah, you being clear all right.”

“Good.”

“If you’re looking to get yourself killed,” he finished, and that appeared to be a signal of some sort as the armed men present brought out their guns and clicked off the safeties.

Chloe did the same and pointed her gun at 2Vile.

“Fuck,” the rapper yelped, took a step back, and raised his hands. His men immediately pointed their guns at Chloe.

Chloe felt sweat bead at her temple. However, she kept her face calm and her eyes trained on the suspect. “LAPD,” she said, her voice steady. “Put the guns down or you’re all arrested.”

2Vile swore again. “You brought a cop?” He accused Lucifer.

“Actually, it would be more accurate to say she brought me,” he smiled brightly.

“Tell your men to put their guns down, 2Vile,” Chloe demanded.

The rapper clenched his jaw and jerked his head. The armed men clicked on the safeties of their firearms and slowly placed them on the floor.

“Everyone except 2Vile, put your backs against the wall nearest to you,” she said, gun still held aloft. She used it to gesture at the butler, who flinched. “You. Grab that bucket and collect the guns. Now!”

As she waited for the butler to finish the task, Lucifer turned to 2Vile, who continued to scowl at him.

“Oh, don’t be like that, murderer,” Lucifer tutted.

“Wha— _murderer_? What’re you going on about?”

Chloe took the bucket of firearms from the butler and tucked away her own gun.

“Does a lovely singer named Delilah ring a bell?”

“What’s that dead bitch got to—”

CRASH.

The sound of shattered glass made Chloe spin around. She looked beyond the broken window and saw the Devil hang a man over the edge of the balcony.

“Lucifer!” She yelled as she dropped the bucket on the nearest table and once again took out her gun. “Lucifer, what are you doing?”

“Interrogating this indeed _vile_ rapper, Detective!” Lucifer called back, though his unblinking eyes remained trained on the man in his grasp.

“That’s not how interrogation works, Lucifer!”

“Come now, there’s nothing like a bit of fear to get a confession out of the guilty!”

“I didn’t kill her!” 2Vile gasped. His arms flailed and his abdomen strained in an attempt to keep his balance. But it was obvious that if Lucifer chose to loosen the grip he had on the rapper’s shirt, he would fall to his death.

“Why should I believe you? You called Delilah’s shooter two days before she died. Know anyone named Eddie Deacon, perchance?”

“Y-Yeah, okay, Eddie hooks me up sometimes and th-that’s why I called him! He met Delilah through me and—and I’d never kill the girl, okay! I loved her, man!”

“People sometimes kill people with whom they’re in love, the heart’s mysterious,” Lucifer said, then paused. “Or so I’ve been told.”

“A-Ain’t like that. Girl made me crazy!”

“Women can _do_ that. Doesn’t mean you should beat them up, does it?”

“We worked that out a long time ago! I hit her once ‘cause I found out that she was cheatin’ on me!”

Lucifer tilted his head as he considered the man before him. Then he raised him from the edge of the balcony and let his feet touch the ground. When Lucifer looked up, he found that Chloe still had her gun trained on him, and he frowned. “Detective?”

Chloe’s heart pounded in her ears. She had never felt so much fear in her life. The image of Lucifer dangling a man over a lethal drop drove home just how dangerous he was. His previous behavior made her lower her guard, but now more than ever she felt that she shouldn’t forget who she was dealing with.

He was the Devil.

She glared at him coldly, the icy trail of fear still in her veins, still crawling up her spine. But she had never been one to back down just because she was scared, and that wasn’t going to change just because she was face to face with the Devil himself. “Were you just going to _drop him_? If he hadn’t answered you?”

2Vile stepped away from Lucifer in terror.

“What?” Lucifer looked between her and 2Vile in genuine surprise. “No! That would have killed him.”

His answer gave Chloe emotional whiplash.

“You… weren’t going to drop him,” she said numbly, and she vaguely noted that her arms had lowered her gun.

“ _Yes_ , Detective,” Lucifer said exasperatedly, as if this should be obvious. “I can’t kill humans. Dad’s rules. One of the few I actually _deign_ to follow, in fact.”

Chloe blinked as her adrenaline faded. “… Oh,” was all she could say.

Lucifer gave her an odd look. It could almost be called concerned, if it weren’t also somehow condescending. “Can we move on to more pressing matters now, Detective?” He turned to 2Vile, who crouched and spread his arms as though in preparation for another attack.

Chloe awkwardly put away her gun. Again.

(Her _life_. Seriously.)

“Alright, who was Delilah cheating on you with?” Lucifer asked.

“I—I don’t—I don’t know,” he stammered. “She wouldn’t tell me. Said it was a big secret, some—some, uh, rich married guy.”

“Well, does she have a friend she might have confided in?”

“Sh-She didn’t trust no one, man. Uh… But she, uh, she had a therapist. Her therapist is probably the only one who knows. Sh-She’s some, uh… uh, Dr. Linda i-in Beverly Hills. Saw her, like, five times a week on the DL. Used a fake name, everything.”

“What was the fake name?” Chloe asked.

“I… I don’t—”

“Penny Lane,” Lucifer spoke up. “That was the name Delilah used whenever she went to do something in secret.”

Chloe nodded slowly. “Okay. We’ll have the department look into it.” Then she turned to 2Vile. “Thank you. And I’m sorry for my…” She glanced at Lucifer, who smiled at her innocently. She grimaced. “For Mr. Morningstar’s behavior.”

“Y-Yeah! Isn’t what he did illegal, or something?”

Chloe tilted her head. “Illegal… Like how you have pot, banned drugs, and…” She picked up a gun from the bucket on the table and gave it a look over. “Do any of you have permits for these?”

The owners of the firearms looked away.

“Yeah, I thought so,” she turned back to 2Vile and smiled at him stiffly. “So how about you drop the assault charges you want to push onto Mr. Morningstar, and I forget anything ‘illegal’ I saw here today?”

One of the men looked at her suspiciously. “You sure you’re a cop?”

“Hey, wait, aren’t you that chick from that film?” Another one piped up.

Chloe tensed.

Lucifer turned to her with interest. “What’s this, what film?”

“You used to be an actress or something, right?”

Chloe’s jaw clenched. Lucifer continued to stare at her intently as he recalled the various movies he’s watched.

“Yeah, you was in that teen movie… I forget what it’s called—”

“Of course!” Lucifer exclaimed. “You starred in _Hot Tub High School_!” His eyes gained a new light as he looked at her. “You must have filmed that before we met… Though, I must admit, your assets are even more spectacular in real life,” he grinned lasciviously. “And may I commend you on your work in that famous nude scene, coming out of the hot tub? You were like the new Phoebe Cates!”

Chloe gazed at Lucifer like she couldn’t believe he existed. She just saw him threaten a man and now he was acting like he was going through the cringe stages of puberty.

“I have a gun,” she finally managed to say. She was glad her voice projected a serenity she inwardly couldn’t manage. “I know how to use it. I have no qualms against using it on the next idiot in this room who doubts that I am a police officer.”

A lie but, well, Chloe felt like she could do it. If they indeed chose to piss her off even more. She was high-strung enough as it is.

Silence.

Then—

“Does that include me?” Lucifer asked curiously. “I mean, I know I’m not an idiot, so you obviously can’t be referring to me. And anyways, even if you did shoot me, it’d be a waste of munitions. I’m immortal.”

Chloe closed her eyes. At times like these, she understood why people prayed for patience to whatever higher being they believed in.

She turned to 2Vile. “Do we have a deal?”

2Vile squared his shoulders. “Yeah, yeah. I drop the charges against that psycho over there and you forget all this shit I’ve got here.”

“Good. Here’s my card. Call me if you find out anything more that could help with the investigation. And don’t leave town until the department tells you it’s all clear. You might get arrested anyways if you do.”

* * *

 

“You know, you didn’t have to make a deal with that rapper,” Lucifer said, once they were back in her car and on the road. “I could have easily handled any lawsuit he could ever choose to throw my way.”

“Oh, _now_ you tell me,” Chloe muttered, then said in a slightly louder voice, “I wasn’t sure, okay? I just wanted to avoid complications.”

“Well. Now you know.”

He was suspiciously silent for a moment.

Then he opened his mouth again, “But, seeing as you made a deal on my behalf, it seems that I once again owe you—”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Chloe cut him off and scowled. “Seriously. Stop saying you owe me favors.”

“Stop putting me in your debt, then,” Lucifer shot back hotly.

“I’m not putting you in my debt because you don’t owe me anything,” she snapped. “Okay? I chose to do all those things. So you can stop trying to pay me back now.”

Lucifer gaped and let out a frustrated exhale. “I don’t understand you.”

Chloe’s eyes flickered to him then back to the road. “What a coincidence,” she said, more subdued now. “Neither do I.”

There was a moment of silence between them as they both stewed in their own thoughts.

Then Chloe’s phone rang. She immediately picked up the call. “Hello?”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay, got it. Thanks.”

Lucifer turned his head towards her. “What was that?”

“I got the details of one Dr. Linda Martin in Beverly Hills, who also happens to have a patient named Penny Lane.”

“So _that_ was what that text back at 2Vile’s was about.”

Chloe grunted and hoped that, if she didn’t speak, she could get a quiet ride.

Lucifer opened his mouth, “So… is that why you’ve got such a chip in your shoulder?”

“… Excuse me?”

“The movie. Is the movie the reason you’re so… well, high-strung all the time? I mean, when we first met, it took a while—and many, many drinks—to get you to loosen up,” he smiled playfully.

She glanced at him. Her mouth involuntarily curled into the beginnings of a smile. “Um. It’s… low, on the list of the things I have to live down, I guess.”

“Right. Attractive female cop struggling to be taken seriously in a man’s-man’s world. Is that it?”

“… Yeah,” Chloe almost snorted. “Something like that.”

“Well, they’re threatened. You’re clever, you have notable instincts, and you’ve got a sense of justice that is, quite frankly, lacking in the rest of the LAPD. So ignore them. Trust yourself.”

She glanced at him again. “Is the Devil actually giving me a pep-talk?” She asked rhetorically, and to her surprise, it almost sounded like a tease.

Lucifer didn’t reply. Chloe glanced at him again and got a glimpse of the pensive look on his face.

“You know,” he began slowly. “I’ve noticed it before but… you seem remarkably accepting of all of my off-hand Devil-related commentary. Why is that?”

Chloe was glad she had the excuse of looking at the road. If she had to stare into those unblinking, dark eyes and admit to the Devil himself that she _knew_ what he was…

Should she reveal it? Because to reveal it would be to reveal Trixie. And while she told her daughter that she would speak with her father about her, the things she saw today made her doubt that—

Her phone rang again and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Hello?”

Her heart sank. “What? You’re kidding me. Is she okay?”

Chloe bit her lip. “Okay, I’m on my way. Thanks.”

She hung up.

“What was that about?” Lucifer asked, and if Chloe didn’t know better, she’d have thought that there was a trace of concern in his voice.

She glanced at him and bit her lip harder.

“Detective?”

It seemed that the choice of telling Lucifer what she knew had been taken out of her hands.

She slowed down the car and parked at an open spot beside the sidewalk. She pressed on the hazard button. She took one deep, fortifying breath, released it in a rush, and turned to face Lucifer. “Look, my kid got into a fight. I need to go pick her up before we head to Beverly Hills.”

“What?” Lucifer said, aghast. “No, absolutely not. Can’t the child get herself home?”

“She… She’s _seven_ , Lucifer,” Chloe tried.

“So? Detective, I’m not here to help you run errands, I’m here to help you solve a homicide.”

“You’re not—” She exhaled in frustration. “Listen to me. My daughter is seven years old. She’s turning eight soon.”

Lucifer still gazed at her with incomprehension. “And this information should interest me… how?”

Chloe pushed past the lump in her throat. “We… We had sex _eight years ago_ , Lucifer.”

A moment.

Another moment.

Chloe stared as the gears turned in Lucifer’s head.

He laughed. “Very funny, Detective. Pull the other one.”

She continued to stare at him with thin lips.

His mirth quickly faded. A pitying look entered his eyes. “Detective, really, must you go through all this trouble? I told you, I already owe you at least three different favors. To accuse me of impregnating you just to get child support…”

Chloe rolled her eyes. Well, it wasn’t like it hadn’t occurred to her that he would make this kind of assumption. “I’m not making this up. The conception date matches the time we had sex. I didn’t… I didn’t do it with anyone else but you at that time. You’re the only possible father.”

Now it was Lucifer’s turn to stare at her. “That’s _impossible_.”

Chloe turned off the hazard lights and drove out of the parking spot. “Look, I get that it should be. You’re the Devil, so you shouldn’t be able to impregnate humans or something, right?”

“ _Exactly_ , so—wait,” he paused, then slowly said, “That… didn’t sound like a theory. You sounded certain. Detective, do you…?”

“Yeah,” Chloe swallowed heavily. “Yeah, I know what you are. I _believe_ that you’re the Devil.”

She glanced at him, found him staring at her with shock, and returned her gaze to the road.

“And the reason why I know for sure is because I gave birth to your daughter.”

* * *

 

“D-Detective, this isn’t a good idea,” Lucifer uncharacteristically stuttered as Chloe pulled him out of the car and towards the school. “While I—I laud your composure in my presence, as well as your daring for,” he stared bewilderedly at the hand on his arm, “for, well, manhandling me—Are you _sure_ you really believe that I’m the _Devil_? You’d think my reputation would incite more fear…”

Chloe turned to him incredulously. Why was he more unsettled by the knowledge that she knew than _she_ was? She expected a number of reactions from him (which mostly ranged from intrigue to unholy glee) but not this _uncertainty_.

“Okay, what is your problem?” She crossed her arms.

Lucifer straightened his posture and adjusted his suit jacket imperiously. “If you really must know,” he huffed. “Say that—that this girl really _is_ mine—”

“She is.”

“—then it would be best if I stay away from her and remain outside of her life. She would already have a difficult time as it is being a… a half-Devil child, there’s no need to add my influence into it. Who knows how she might turn out?” He sniffed. “And besides, I despise children. I could… I could never be a good father to her.”

Chloe blinked. She… had not expected that.

Somehow, in some way, they both had similar concerns…?

She opened and closed her mouth, and tried to find the right words to say. “Look. As much as I share your concerns, I think you should also consider how Trixie feels about this. She already knows—”

“ _Wait just one second_ ,” Lucifer cut in. “ _Trixie_? That’s a hooker’s name! You gave her a hooker’s name?” He sounded offended. “What kind of expectations are you setting for your child?”

Chloe scowled. “It’s a nickname! Her real name’s Beatrice. And I don’t want to talk about my naming sense with the guy—person—being—whatever, who literally calls himself ‘Morningstar Morningstar’.”

Lucifer’s mouth dropped in a soundless gasp. “Excuse you, ‘Lucifer’ means ‘light-bringer’.”

“And it’s also a reference to the planet Venus, which is known as the ‘morning star’,” Chloe rebutted. “So. There.” She shook her head. “And anyways! The point is. Trixie knows about you. And she said she wants to meet you. Granted, I didn’t plan for your first meeting to happen this way, but I can’t do anything about it. So, just… just deal with it.”

Lucifer grimaced. “While I’m not sure I believe you when you say that the child is mine, I suppose I should have a look… just to be sure.”

* * *

 

Lucifer and Trixie had a Mexican stand-off, with Chloe in between them yet not in their line of sight.

“Trixie, babe, this is Lucifer,” Chloe gently told the girl.

Trixie looked up at Lucifer with wide eyes. “You’re… tall,” she told him, a little nervously.

Lucifer blinked. The girl… Well, she _could_ be his, he supposed. She certainly didn’t get her eyes and hair from her mother. But she did have that mole near her eye, just like her mother did, and there was another one near her mouth. He had something similar, it was just covered by his stubble.

Was he actually considering this child could be his? She could be anyone’s! Dark hair and eyes were _common_ , for his Father’s sake, and moles weren’t a rarity either.

“Is he okay?” Trixie whispered to her mother.

Chloe frowned. “Lucifer?” She spoke with concern and a hint of wariness.

Lucifer cleared his throat. “Hello… Beatrice,” he grimaced. “Your mother believes I’m your father and the only reason I’ve come here is to prove her wrong.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. Trixie blinked up at him.

“Are you the Devil?” She asked.

Lucifer looked at her oddly. “… Yes.”

“Oh. Then you’re my daddy,” she nodded with certainty.

Lucifer looked scandalized. “Now, see here, urchin—”

“Okay!” Chloe cut in. “Why don’t you two sit over here and get to know each other, while I talk to the Principal. Does that sound good?”

“You can’t _possibly_ be thinking of leaving me with—”

“Okay, mommy!” Trixie chirped as she grabbed Lucifer’s sleeve and pulled him to the nearest bench. Lucifer, brain evidently still trying to keep up with this turn of events, didn’t resist. He sat down and Trixie settled herself beside him.

Chloe gave her daughter a proud smile then turned a stern gaze on Lucifer. “I need your word that you won’t hurt her or take her away.”

“Please, at this rate, _I’m_ more liable to high-tail out of here,” he grumbled.

Chloe continued to look at him balefully.

He sighed. “Fine! You have my word. The urchin will not be harmed or taken away.”

She nodded approvingly, affectionately kissed Trixie’s head (much to Lucifer’s surprise), and entered the Principal’s office.

Trixie started to rock her dangling legs back and forth. She stared at Lucifer expectantly.

“What?” He asked defensively, his whole body coiled like a live wire.

“I look a lot like you,” she said thoughtfully.

“Excuse me?”

“I always wondered what you looked like ‘cause I don’t look like mommy. She’s prettier.”

Lucifer frowned. “Child, if you look a lot like me, as you say, then you’re far prettier than your mother.” Then he flinched as though struck. “But don’t tell her I said that.”

Trixie giggled. “You’re funny!” She said brightly, with a smile to match.

Lucifer blinked, then looked away. He fiddled with the lighter in his suit pocket but figured that the Detective wouldn’t take too kindly to him smoking in the child’s presence. He cleared his throat. “So. You got into a fight.”

The girl suddenly deflated. “Oh. Yeah. I did.”

Lucifer pushed down the mild panic that rose at the sight of her glum look. “I’m not berating you, child. Far be it for me to judge your life choices. Although, how _did_ that happen?”

Trixie blinked, then pointed at a girl who sat on another bench, a few feet away from them. “See that girl over there?”

Lucifer looked.

“She was bullying me. She created a fake snap-chat account and used it to make fun of me. So… I kicked her in the no-no-touch-touch square.”

Lucifer’s brows furrowed.

Trixie pointed to the spot between his legs.

“Oh… Oh, I see!” A pleasantly surprised smile bloomed on his face. “Well-played, child.”

Trixie beamed at him.

Lucifer glanced at the mean girl. Trixie also looked back at her.

Then the strangest thing occurred.

The mean girl took one look at Trixie, froze, and proceeded to curl up on the bench. Very much like how prey would make themselves smaller before a predator. Lucifer could even see the mean girl shake a little.

A frown formed on his face as his stomach sank. “Why did she react to you in such a way?”

Trixie looked at him guiltily. “I got… really mad. S-So I might’ve, well… also accidentally showed her…” She glanced around then cupped the sides of her eyes and stared straight at Lucifer, “… this.”

Her eyes flashed red.

Lucifer reared back—

_“—believe that you’re the Devil—"_

_“—gave birth to your daughter—”_

_“Are you the Devil?”_

_“Then you’re my daddy.”_

—and fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos and comments!
> 
> Special thanks to AO3 user "adlyb"---your comment gave me the push I needed to finish this chapter! I was really flattered to hear that you've had the fic stuck in your head for weeks even though it was just one chapter.
> 
> I hope all of you enjoyed this update! And you're also welcome to talk to me on my tumblr account: any-n-everything.tumblr.com


	3. Congrats, Lucifer. You're a Father.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second half of 1x01: Pilot, rewritten. 
> 
> Or, 
> 
> Lucifer freaks out.

 

_5 years ago…_

Lucifer Morningstar was new to emotions.

Eons ago—before humanity, before he lit the stars even—he had known contentment. He had known purpose and obedience. Like his brothers and sisters, those were the only things he’d known.

Then Father Almighty started Project _Humanity_.

He hadn’t understood what made the humans so special. None of them did. Then Father told them that humans had “free will” and explained to them all that it entailed.

And then he _wanted_.

But he was the only one who did.

And he Fell.

…

Billions of years later, one of the echoes of darkness told him something he never realized about his nature.

They told him, “You are a creature filled with desire yet empty of fulfillment.”

He hadn’t even known _what_ fulfillment was until a scant few centuries ago. It was then that he realized that, for most of his immortal life, he had been lost in the desert of desire. The moment he quenched his thirst with “fulfillment”, he found that he never wanted to be without it ever again.

He wanted it so much that he willingly parted with most of his divinity. And while fulfillment did indeed come with that decision, so too did other emotions. Some were delightful, others he found an inconvenience, but he learned how to manage each one as they came, with time.

And right now, as he laid beside Chloe (who slept like a log and snored like an Albanian field wench), new—and thus, unfamiliar—emotions stirred within him. Although, honestly speaking, these strange _feelings_ began to accumulate the moment they met. He just couldn’t fathom what had aroused them. He had met and slept with humans before—innumerable times, in fact (although if pressed, he could probably give a number). Lust was one of the many forms of desire and he satisfied it with anyone he fancied.

He fed his lust again tonight but desire still hadn’t left. There was something more that he craved.

He just didn’t know what it was.

“Bloody human emotions,” Lucifer muttered. His fingers twitched and, slowly, hesitantly, he trailed his hand through her soft blonde hair. The action only marginally quelled his desire, much to his annoyance.

(Such a tease, really.)

Chloe shifted in her sleep. Her head seemed to lean towards his hand and a tiny smile formed on her lips

He recalled how she denied that she would “go home” with him but then agreed to bring him to a mall and shop for new clothes with him. He recalled how beautiful she looked in the dress he’d bought her and how freely she’d danced after some encouraging words and shots of liquid courage. He recalled how… unsettled he’d become, when he discovered that his limited powers had no effect on her—neither his gift of desire nor his preternatural charm.

He remembered how she asked him what _he_ wanted, and fulfilled _his_ desire. He remembered how they shared the pleasure of music by playing the piano together, and then that odd moment when they revealed that they wanted the same thing. And with every memory of their kisses and caresses, he remembered the traces of… _doubt_ that tainted his passion. For once in his life, he’d doubted his ability to bring pleasure to another because he couldn’t use his gift to ascertain what she desired most.

Yet here she was now, sated and (it seemed) happy. He felt… _proud_ that he hadn’t needed his gift at all. The thought that he _alone_ had been enough was thrilling.

(And while he remembered many things, he also found that he wanted to forget the… the moment they shared _after_. The way she frowned as he spoke of how his Father had wronged him. The way she took him seriously as he spoke of being the Devil.

The disappointment when she said that she would only believe him ‘for tonight’.)

Lucifer Morningstar was new to emotions and he found them utterly taxing.

But he also knew that he would rather have the good and the bad of them all, than the emptiness of before.

Although, he would feel much better if he could just figure out what it was that he wanted _now_ , so he could experience the high of fulfillment again…

* * *

 

 

_2016 (Present)_

He returned to consciousness in increments.

Tactility came first. He sat upright on some sort of upholstery. There was also a belt across his chest and waist—sensations he easily associated with being strapped inside a vehicle. No wind, so he wasn’t in his convertible. Then scent followed. Leather, air freshener… perfume? He was with someone else, then, although it was strangely silent, except for the faint hum of the car.

Lucifer’s eyelids fluttered open. His neck was tilted towards the driver’s side of the car, so the first thing he saw was the Detective’s profile. Briefly, he wondered what had happened for him to find himself asleep in the police cruiser.

Then the memories rushed back.

“Detective!” He exclaimed. Chloe swerved and narrowly avoided an accident.

“Jesus _Christ_ , Lucifer!”

“Huh, well there’s an oxymoron,” he couldn’t help but quip, then returned to the absolutely concerning matter at hand. “Detective, the child! The child had—had red eyes and—and—” He strained in his seat to look around the vehicle and paused when he found it empty except for the two of them. Weren’t they supposed to pick up the child?

He resettled in his seat; his heartbeat wild in his chest. “Was that—Was it all… just a dream?”

The child didn’t exist? The child with his very red, very devilish eyes had just been a figment of his imagination?

That… That was a good thing… right?

“What?” Chloe said. “Lucifer, no, that wasn’t a dream, you—you _fainted_ ,” her tone was incredulous. “Trixie said that after she showed you her eyes, it looked like you held your breath until you… Well, until you lost consciousness.” She glanced at him, then mumbled, “It’s kinda funny, actually.”

Lucifer was so stunned by the confirmation of the child’s existence that his only response was, “I have a _child_.”

Chloe turned left at a junction. “Yeah. Yeah, you do.”

“ _I_ … have a _child_.”

“Mm-hm,” she glanced at him with wide eyes and pressed lips, and nodded. “We kinda already established that, Lucifer.”

“But… But I’m the Devil!”

Chloe overtook a car and honked at it. That person went even slower than she did. “Mind telling me something I don’t know?” She muttered under her breath.

“I can’t have a child, it’s impossible!”

Was his Father behind this? No, why in His forsaken name would He arrange for His _rebellious son_ to sire a _child_? It could be another one of his unfathomable plans but there was no (obvious?) way He could possibly benefit from this, so Lucifer could (probably) safely(?) rule out any divine intervention.

“Uh…” Chloe forced a laugh. “Kind of hard to agree with you there seeing as, you know, she _exists_. I carried her around for nine months and everything.”

Lucifer narrowed his eyes. “Did my Father send you?” He demanded.

“… What?” was all she could say. “ _No_. No way! I was—I was an _atheist_ before all of this, I’ve never _once_ communicated with… with your _Father_ —with _God_ —in my _life_. And honestly? I’m not about to start now.”

He blinked. “… Really?”

Well. Good for him, he supposed? An atheist was, honestly speaking, largely preferable to one of his Father’s followers.

She shot him a look. “What—What would I even _say_ to Him?” She demanded. “’Hey, God. Thanks for making my daughter’s father the _literal Devil_ and leaving me to deal with said Devil’s subsequent _freak out_. _Amen_.’”

“I am _not_ ‘freaking out’.”

Another look. ‘Oh really?’ It said. ‘You _don’t say_.’

Lucifer was flabbergasted. “You… Are you making _fun of me_?” He asked dubiously.

She spread her hands over the wheel. “ _Well_ … I won’t deny that I’m kinda enjoying your reaction—”

“Sadist.”

“—but _only_ ,” she shot him a look, “because a part of me was worried that, you know, you actually _planned_ to impregnate me with the possible Antichrist—”

Lucifer choked on his breath. “ _What_?”

“I-I wasn’t sure, okay!” Chloe said defensively. “ _But_. Now that I know for sure that it should’ve been… _impossible_ for you to father a child, and now that I can see you actually freaking out—”

“I am _not_ —”

Her voice rose, “—almost as much as _I_ did when _I_ found out that… that my daughter’s father was the—well, the _actual Devil_ …” She shrugged. “I’m… relieved. I guess.”

Lucifer made a disbelieving sound. _Relieved_ , she said. As if anything about this situation could bring relief. This was a _catastrophe_.

“… The Antichrist doesn’t exist,” he decided to, at least, clear that up. “That’s just silly Church propaganda made to incite fear,” he added almost robotically. Then he slumped in his seat. “I have a child,” he said plaintively.

Chloe glanced at him again, and when she next spoke, it was with concern. “Okay, are you going to be like this for the rest of the day? ‘cause if you are, then maybe it’s best if I… I dunno, take you back to Lux or something.”

Lucifer turned to her incomprehensively. “You _know_ who I am.”

Chloe went silent at that.

Lucifer continued to stare at her. He watched unblinkingly as she quietly drove inside a compound and parked in the first open spot she saw. He watched as she cut off the engine and took out the car keys from the ignition. Her head bowed as she rubbed the pads of her fingertips against the metal of the keys she held.

“Yeah,” she said at last. “I know.”

His mouth opened and closed. He didn’t know how to respond. Most humans, when they found out, ran away screaming. He’d never had to… _talk_ with a—sane—human in the know, before, barring the firsts of his Father’s creations.

“… For how long…?” He finally managed.

“About… seven years. Give or take a few months.”

 _‘Seven_ years _…’_ Not long at all for him, but certainly a lot by human standards. “And you’re not… scared?”

The ‘of me’ was left unspoken.

Chloe slowly raised her head and looked at him straight in the eye.

Lucifer suddenly found it slightly difficult to breathe.

“… Should I be?” She whispered.

A beat.

Another.

A third.

And then he had to look away. He didn’t lie, so he couldn’t say anything, because he didn’t know which answer would be the truth.

They sat in silence for a long moment.

Chloe knew they should get out of the car and enter the building. They needed to talk to Dr. Martin. They were in the middle of a murder investigation. They didn’t have time to let their weird, supernatural, and emotionally-charged situation interfere with what needed to be done.

She told herself all of this but still couldn’t bring herself to move.

Then Lucifer spoke up.

“What—” He cleared his throat. “The child. Beatrice. What is she… like?”

Chloe breathed in deeply and exhaled steadily. “Kind,” she said. “Sweet. She can get a little… mischievous, at times, but she’s… she’s good. She’s really… good.”

“Like a little angel, then,” Lucifer said dryly.

A startled laugh left her. “Sometimes,” she allowed. “Other times she’s more of a little… hellion.”

“Hah!” Lucifer barked. “Believe me when I say, Detective, that the child is… _probably_ nothing like a hellion.”

“… Probably,” Chloe repeated, unsure what that actually implied.

Lucifer’s mouth twitched into a sly smile. “Probably,” he nodded. “Who knows for sure, though? I wouldn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

He shifted in his seat so that he sat up straighter. “No celestial has ever procreated with a human before,” he informed her. “At least, not to my knowledge.”

Chloe’s face fell. “You mean to say that—You’re telling me that my daughter is… what? One of a kind?”

He nodded mutely.

Chloe massaged her temples. “That can’t—What about the Nephilim? In the Bible?”

Lucifer raised an impressed brow. “Well, someone’s done their research. But, no,” he lightly shook his head. “The Nephilim never existed. What inspired those stories were simply a tribe of outrageously large humans that other, smaller humans—in an attempt to rationalize their existence—claimed were descended from angels.”

“Should have known,” Chloe muttered harshly to herself. She ran her hands down her face and made an irritated sound. “Which means I’m raising a half-angel—”

“Devil,” Lucifer corrected. “Half-Devil.”

She gave him a cross look. “I’m raising a half… _celestial_ child… blind.”

“Yes, well,” he shifted in his seat again. “Best of luck to you, then, Detective.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. You are _not_ getting out of raising _our_ daughter that easily.”

Lucifer felt electricity course through his body. _Our_ daughter, she said, as if he had a claim to her. He’d already missed eight years of the child’s life. “I’m sorry, did you miss the part where I’m the _literal_ Devil? Or the part where I told you that I’m not father material? Or the part where—”

“I’m not expecting you to be a perfect father,” Chloe cut him off and Lucifer’s mind, and rant, screeched to a halt.

“… You’re not?” He asked uncertainly.

“Of course not,” she said exasperatedly. “I can’t expect you to be perfect at something you’ve never done before.”

“… Oh.” Lucifer was confused, out-of-his-depth, and on edge because of the whirlwind of emotions within him.

(Bloody human emotions.)

“Look,” Chloe continued. “Devil or not, like it or not, none of it changes the fact that _you’re_ Trixie’s father. And Trixie… Trixie _deserves_ to get to know her father.” She caught his gaze and held it. “She _wants_ to get to know you.”

Lucifer tried to speak and was surprised to find a lump in his throat. He coughed to clear it. “I’m not—I don’t—” He growled in frustration. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and then tried again.

“I agree with you,” he said slowly, “in that the child, at the very least, deserves to have a father who is… _present_ for her. But…” He wondered if his face expressed how lost he felt, and he looked away, discomfited by the thought. “But I don’t know… _how_ ,” he forced out.

From the corner of his eye, he saw how Chloe pursed her lips. Then, slowly, she nodded. “That’s… That’s fine. You just have to try. As long as you put in the effort, I’m sure Trixie will appreciate it.” She paused, then lightly added, “Even though you didn’t exactly make the best first impression.” She checked her watch as an excuse to avoid looking at him, and realized that they really, _really_ needed to get going.

“Right…” Lucifer grimaced at the reminder of his fainting spell. “I don’t suppose it’s too much to ask of you to… _forget_ that little incident?” He hopefully asked as she opened the car door and stepped out.

She turned and leaned forward to peruse him thoughtfully. “Hmm… The Devil faints upon realizing that he has a child,” she mused. “No, I don’t think I’ll ever let you live it down,” she smirked and shut the door.

Lucifer gaped for a second then scrambled to get out of the car. “Detective!”

She shot him a hesitant grin. “Congrats, Lucifer. You’re a _father_.”

He scowled at her and Chloe hid a laugh as she walked away. Lucifer hastily shut the car door and watched as the lights flashed, which signaled that the Detective had locked it. He turned his gaze towards her disappearing figure, her playful words on repeat in his mind.

 _‘She knows,’_ he thought and never had he been more aware of his own heartbeat.

She was human and she knew who he was and she teased him anyways. She laughed at him anyways. Smiled at him, however tentatively, anyways.

_“And you’re not… scared?”_

_“Should I be?”_

_‘I don’t want you to be.’_

* * *

 

“So, where _is_ the child?” Lucifer asked as he settled down on the leather seat beside Chloe, a cup of coffee in hand.

Chloe had her eyes trained on her phone as she typed out a text, a small furrow between her brows. “Hm? Oh, uh, Dan brought her home.”

“Who’s _Dan_?”

She raised her head. “Um, Detective Espinoza…?” She shrugged a shoulder. “His first name’s Daniel but everyone calls him Dan.”

Lucifer glowered, disliking the coiling sensation in his gut. “And why, may I ask, did you leave the child with _him_?”

Chloe raised a brow. “He’s one of Trixie’s emergency contacts. The school accidentally called him first instead of me. Anyways, he showed up sometime after you fainted and helped me get you into the car. Then I asked if he could bring Trixie home and he said yes.”

“And why is _he_ an emergency contact?”

Her eyes narrowed at his cross tone. “Be… cause he’s my friend…?”

Lucifer seemed to mull this over. “Right. Right…”

Chloe frowned at him then returned her attention to her phone.

Lucifer stared at her. There were… so many things he wanted to say. But at the same time, he didn’t know _what_ to say. How do you speak with the only— _sane_ —human who knew you were the Devil?

(Asking for a friend.)

Maybe he should talk about children? She obviously held affection for her—their? Bloody _Hell_ —child, perhaps that was a safe topic? What to say, though? Actually, what _did_ he think about children?

“Speaking of offspring,” the words tumbled out of Lucifer’s mouth before he could think them through, “I’ve never understood the human desire to procreate.”

Chloe paused in her texting, then resumed with a noncommittal hum. “Really, now.” Her tone implied that she had no idea where he was going with this.

Lucifer took another sip of his drink. “Yes, you see, when you think about it—and _really_ take a long, good look at them—children are, frankly, hideous little creatures. Not to mention terrible, taxing burdens…”

Chloe raised her head again, this time to give him a pointed stare.

He glanced at her. “What?”

“… First rule of parenting: Don’t call your child—or any child, actually—hideous or a ‘terrible, taxing burden’,” she said monotonously.

“Oh.” Lucifer paused. “Not good?”

“Mm. Very bad.”

“… I see.” Good to know, he supposed? At least now he knew what _not_ to say to his—her—their— _the_ Child. _The_ Child, yes, let’s go with that.

The door before them opened and a blonde with thick, black-framed glasses, dressed smartly yet casually, stepped out. “Okay, Detectives,” she said. “I’ll see you now.”

“Thank you,” Chloe said as she stood up.

“Ooh. ‘Detectives’,” Lucifer grinned, clearly liking how he was considered one.

Chloe only gave him a bland smile.

* * *

 

“Dr. Martin,” Chloe began, “I’d like to ask you a few questions about…” She trailed off when she noticed that the therapist wasn’t paying attention to her at all. In fact, she seemed more interested in—

“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” Lucifer said, his voice pitched slightly lower than usual. His confidence was immediately restored. _This_ , he understood. _This_ situation, he could handle.

Dr. Martin snapped to attention. “W-What?”

“Yes, I wouldn’t recommend it,” he continued, yet despite his words, he spoke enticingly. “I’m like walking heroin. Very habit-forming, it never ends well.”

Dr. Martin sighed in consternation as she stretched her neck. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Chloe frowned and leaned towards Lucifer. “Can you… turn that off?” She whispered. “We’re not getting any information out of her if she’s high on your… Devil… pheromones or something.”

Lucifer’s face spasmed. He looked like he wanted to frown but also couldn’t help but grin. “First it was ‘desire mojo’ and now you call my charm ‘Devil pheromones’?” He asked incredulously and with some amusement. “How _irreverent_ of you, Detective,” he teased.

Chloe felt her cheeks heat up. “I’m _sorry_ , okay,” she whispered heatedly. “But can you turn that off or not?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t.” Then he frowned as he considered her. “I still find it strange how I don’t bring out the dark, mischievous heart in you. I mean, we’ve already had sex. You’d think you’d want a repeat performance because, well, let’s face it,” he smirked, “most do.”

Dr. Martin looked at both of them with interest.

Chloe glared at him. “We are _not_ talking about that.”

“Why ever not? I’m _certain_ that it was highly pleasurable for—”

“Lucifer,” she cut him off. “Did it ever occur to you that, now that I know certain… information… about you… that I might not want to be… _intimate_ with you. Anymore.” A beat, then, “At all.”

His face shuttered. “… Right. Understandable, I suppose.”

Chloe turned away from him and towards Dr. Martin, her arms crossed over her chest and her shoulders hunched with something akin to guilt. Meanwhile, Lucifer glanced at his hand. He clenched it into a fist, relaxed it, and faced the therapist as well. He spoke first.

“Now tell me, Linda—”

“You say it’s… understandable,” Dr. Martin spoke up, “and yet I can see that you’re… disappointed. And that you don’t understand why.”

Chloe frowned and glanced at Lucifer. She was surprised to see him appear unguarded for a second before his walls went back up. She turned to the therapist again and wondered if the Devil could be psychoanalyzed with man-made methods.

She shook off the stray thought. She had to focus on the case. “Dr. Martin, we know that Delilah was having a, uh, clandestine affair with a wealthy married man. So we would appreciate it very much if you could give us the name and then we’ll be on our way.”

Dr. Martin regarded her evenly. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“Oh, she’s one of the complex ones,” Lucifer grinned at Chloe. He held up a finger, said, “Watch,” and leaned forward to lock eyes with the therapist. “Linda, darling, why don’t you tell me, hm?”

“Well, I can’t,” Dr. Martin gave a strained smile.

Chloe watched as Lucifer actively worked his magic on the woman. She tensed when Dr. Martin called Lucifer the Devil but relaxed when she realized the therapist hadn’t meant it literally. But Chloe still grew unsettled the longer the ‘interrogation’ went, as it honestly started to look like the therapist had been roofied or something similar.

“Okay, the answer is yes, we can take a trip to pound town if we must,” Lucifer said and Chloe shot him an alarmed look, “but _first_ , you’re gonna have to tell us, Linda. Okay?”

Dr. Martin appeared to muster the last bit of her resistance then finally threw her hands up in surrender. “Okay!” She nervously laughed. “It’s Grey Cooper.”

Chloe’s eyes widened. “Grey Cooper? Seriously? That _is_ juicy.”

“Grey Cooper, the actor? Married to Amanda what’s-her-chops?” Lucifer frowned. “Oh, no, he’s horrible. So square-jawed, so handsome, so vanilla. Oh, I’m disappointed in Delilah, that’s truly terrible taste in men.”

Chloe didn’t deign Lucifer’s tirade with a response. “Thank you very much, Dr. Martin. We’ll be in touch.” She stood up and unthinkingly patted Lucifer’s knee. “Alright, we gotta go.”

Lucifer glanced at where she touched him and stood up as well. “Right, yes,” and then he paused as he considered Dr. Martin. “Wait,” he grabbed Chloe’s wrist and she turned to face him quizzically. “I… I made a deal so I’m going to have to hold up my end of the bargain. Do you mind waiting by the car?”

Chloe’s eyes darted between the badly-hidden eagerness on the therapist’s face and the earnest look on Lucifer’s. “Are you serious? Do you really have to do it right now?”

“Well, it won’t take _too_ long—”

“I do yoga,” Dr. Martin blurted out. “ _Hot_ … yoga. I’m freakishly flexible. Want to see?” And she raised her leg.

Chloe looked away and covered the lower half of her face with a hand. _‘This is my life now,’_ she mourned. _‘Damned Devil pheromones.’_

Lucifer, for his part, only gazed at Dr. Martin appreciatively.

“Wow!” Dr. Martin exclaimed and awkwardly laughed as she lowered her leg. She turned away from them, cheeks pink with shame. “I… really tried to keep that one in.”

Chloe managed to at least give her a sympathetic look. Honestly speaking, it wasn’t her fault. And it wasn’t Lucifer’s fault, either—it couldn’t be helped if his abilities didn’t have an off switch. “It’s fine. It’s good that you tried.” She glanced at Lucifer and sighed heavily. “Look, can’t you settle your deal later? The more time we waste, the more time Delilah’s killer gets to cover their tracks or get away.”

Lucifer raised a finger, “Point taken.” Then he turned to Dr. Martin. “I’m going to have to take a rain check. But I will be back, okay?”

“I certainly hope so,” was the immediate reply.

He made small sound of amusement. “My word is my bond.”

Chloe shook her head and walked to the door. She was actually starting to believe those words.

* * *

 

The talk with Grey Cooper could have gone… better, Chloe believed, but at least she had him, his wife, and his bodyguard in custody. The next step was to interrogate them back at the precinct.

But before that, she had to drop Lucifer off at Lux.

“I still don’t understand why I can’t go to the precinct with you,” he complained as he exited the car.

“You’re a civilian,” was all she said.

“So? I’m the _Devil_. That’s got to count for something in your human hierarchy.”

Honestly? Chloe had a hard time thinking of him as the Devil when he behaved like this. All… whiny.

“Look, I’m sorry, Lucifer, but it’s the rules. And if I let a civilian who’s _not_ on the LAPD’s payroll sit in on interrogation, I can get accused of foul play. This is safer.”

He rolled his eyes. “More _boring_ , you mean. And I on my own would be more effective at interrogating criminals than the LAPD combined.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Chloe said dryly, “but that’s not gonna change the fact that I can’t let you go inside the precinct.” She paused. “But I _can_ promise you that I’ll update you once the interrogation’s finished.”

“Really?” Lucifer brightened. “Drinks on me, then.”

She blinked. “What—”

He frowned. “That _was_ what you meant, yes? You can’t send me a text—I don’t have a mobile phone. And it’d be a waste to call Lux’s landline when you can just head straight back here and update me in person.”

“I—”

Lucifer stared at her unblinkingly.

Chloe sighed. “Fine. I’ll meet you back here at Lux.”

“Excellent!” He smiled again.

When Lucifer turned his back to her to strut inside his nightclub, Chloe rolled her eyes at him and drove out of Lux’s premises.

“Man-child,” she muttered under her breath. But, despite her annoyance, there was a tiny smile on her face.

* * *

 

As promised, after the interrogation, Chloe once again drove to Lux. As she handed her keys to the valet, she spotted a television, piles of flowers and candles, and some assorted Delilah merchandise outside of the establishment. It was a mural for the recently departed artist.

It occurred to Chloe, then, that Lucifer must have either allowed fans to set up the mural at Lux or he had it arranged himself. Her expression softened at the thought.

Then she shook it off, regained her impassivity, and made her way inside. She saw that Lucifer sat at the bar, with a drink held loosely in hand. She quietly sat one stool away from him.

“Detective!” He greeted her with a wide smile. “So glad to see you again.” Then he seemed to realize something. “Ah, right! Maze, be a dear and make something for my guest, would you?”

A glass was set down in front of her and a brusque voice asked, “What’ll it be?”

Chloe glanced up and Maze blinked. The Demon pointed at her, “You. I know you.”

Lucifer’s gaze sharpened. “Oh?” He said softly.

A chill ran up Chloe’s spine but, to her credit, she managed to keep her cool. “Hey, Maze. I’ll have a whiskey on the rocks, please.”

Maze nodded curtly and moved to grab some ice.

Lucifer’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. “I’m sorry, how do you two know each other?”

“This chick’s been hanging out at Lux ever since it opened,” Maze said as she dropped ice into the glass and poured whiskey in it.

Chloe picked up the drink. “Thanks,” she raised the glass to the bartender and took a sip.

Maze poured herself a glass and lifted her drink to her lips. She tilted her head in Lucifer’s direction. “So I guess you finally got the guts to talk to him?”

Chloe smiled wryly. “More like I didn’t have a choice.”

The Demon gave her a considering look as she drank. She clicked her tongue as her brows raised. “Wait… He called you ‘Detective’…” She set her glass down and leaned forward predatorily. “So _you’re_ the one-night stand he couldn’t get over.”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Lucifer cut in before anything more could be said. “Maze,” he smiled tightly, “back off.”

Maze raised her hands but couldn’t help her smirk. She picked up her drink and turned to leave. “Hit me up if you ever wanna play for the other team,” she purred at Chloe, then walked to the other end of the bar with a sway to her hips.

Chloe watched her go. “Your Demon is as frightening as she is hot,” she murmured to Lucifer, who was visibly taken aback.

“You know about her as well?” He stated, more than asked, in surprise.

She shrugged. “Maze maybe let it slip, once or twice.”

His eyes narrowed. “I see…” He tapped his fingers on the counter. “So. You’ve been coming to Lux since it opened, have you?”

Chloe laughed awkwardly. Like _Hell_ was she going to admit to anything. “Oh, no. That’s not why I’m here. And I’m pretty sure you have questions that are more important than that.”

“Debatable,” he murmured, then sighed. “But as Delilah’s case is urgent, it takes precedence.” He sipped from his drink. “How’d the interrogation go?”

She wiped the condensation from her glass. “All you really need to know is that neither Grey nor Amanda nor the bodyguard, Bobby, have any connection with the shooter. So they’re ruled out as suspects.”

Lucifer sighed.

Chloe took a fortifying gulp from her drink. “The problem is, is that the shooter had the same watch as Grey and that _can’t_ be a coincidence. Maybe Delilah gave him one, too, like… kind of like a go-to gift—”

“Well, that would imply that she was actually _sleeping_ with that maggot,” Lucifer added his two cents.

“Really? Jimmy, 2Vile, Grey Cooper,” she ticked them off. “That’s three other maggots she’s sleeping with.” She waved a finger at him, “I don’t think there’s a lot of discretion going on here.”

“I… suppose you’ve got a point,” he admitted grudgingly.

Chloe tilted her head in acknowledgement then finished her drink. She set the glass down and pressed a finger to her temple as she stared into the distance. Her eyes weren’t hazy but sharp—her mind was firmly on the case.

Lucifer felt intrigued as he watched her.

Behind the bar, Maze turned on the TV and lowered the volume. Then she switched to a news channel and let it drone on as she wiped down some glass mugs.

Lucifer spoke up. “Detective?”

“Hm?”

He traced the rim of his glass with a fingertip and asked something that had bothered him since his return to Lux, “What do you want from me?”

She blinked and turned towards him. “I don’t—”

“And don’t you dare say you don’t want anything from me.”

Chloe closed her mouth.

Lucifer finished his drink. He contemplated the empty glass for a moment. “You said you don’t expect me to be a perfect father to the Child,” he said at last. “That doesn’t mean, however, that you don’t have expectations of me.” He set his narrowed gaze on her. “So what are they? These expectations of yours.”

She glanced at her empty drink and wished it was full. “… Pretty simple, I guess. I just…” She locked eyes with him and matched the intensity of his gaze with her own. “I want you to be there for her. Be there for her when she needs something and when she wants something… I guess make sure that it won’t hurt her. Whatever it is.”

“So. Fulfill the Child’s every desire,” he summarized. “I suppose I can do that.”

Chloe laughed. “Parenting isn’t that simple. We can’t always give our kids everything they want.”

“Why ever not?” He sounded… defensive.

“If your kid wanted to touch fire, would you let them?” She asked.

Lucifer opened his mouth to give an immediate retort, then slowly closed it as he thought it through. “… No,” he said at last and found that he couldn’t hold her gaze. He looked away. “They would get burned.”

Unconsciously, he raised a hand to his face.

“Right. Exactly,” Chloe nodded. “And no parent—no _good_ parent, at least—would let their child get hurt if they could avoid it. I guess the best way I can explain it is… You give your kid what they need to live… happily, and make sure that… they know that the things they _want_ … isn’t always what’s best for them.”

Lucifer was silent as he pondered her words. He admitted to himself, in the recesses of his mind, that he could come to like that kind of… parenting.

“It sounds to me like the Child is already in good hands,” he said.

Chloe couldn’t help but smile. “Maybe, but… I can only handle the human half. And, as you know… there’s that… other half that I don’t know how to deal with.”

The expectant air made him clench his jaw. Slowly, he forced himself to raise his head and meet her eyes.

“She needs you,” she said simply.

Lucifer’s lips parted. He pressed them closed and swallowed. “And the child should get whatever she needs, yes?” He managed to say lightly.

Chloe chuckled. “Right.”

They shared a cautious smile, then at the same time, bowed their heads to look at the counter. After a brief silence, filled only by the news Maze had playing on the TV, Lucifer reached over to grab a bottle of whiskey from the bar and refilled their glasses.

“What about… you, Detective?” He asked. “What do you… need? Or want, as it is?”

Her mouth twitched. “You mean, what do I _desire_ more than anything else in this life?”

Lucifer grinned. “Yes, well, no tricks. Not that they work on you, you freak.”

She snorted and took a sip of alcohol.

“Seriously, though,” he said. “I’m curious.”

Slowly, she shook her head. “That makes two of us. Sometimes I wish your desire mojo worked on me too, just so I could answer that question for myself.”

Lucifer didn’t know how to respond to that. Instead, he pushed forward with his original line of questioning. “Well, then… What is it that you _think_ you want, then?”

“I don’t,” she laughed. “I don’t know!”

He continued to look at her expectantly.

Chloe sighed. “I guess… Well, when I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a cop. Like my dad.”

Lucifer grimaced. “Following in your father’s footsteps? Now, why on Earth would you want to do _that_?”

“Okay, first of all,” she pointed at him. “Not _everyone_ has a complicated relationship with their dad like you do.”

“ _Complicated_?” He scoffed. “Biggest understatement since the dawn of creation.”

She grinned. “And _second_ of all,” she raised a hand, almost helplessly, “I… wanted to help people. Like my dad did.”

He raised both eyebrows. ‘Is that it?’ The brows seemed to say.

Chloe actually giggled this time. “Okay, ah… My father was a cop. He was a _great_ cop. My mother was an actress. A really _cheesy_ one.”

Lucifer chuckled.

Her smile widened. “I tried the acting thing. I took off my top. Realized that I wasn’t really contributing to the betterment of society.”

“Oh, I disagree, I love that movie,” he smirked.

She snorted. “Right. Of course you did.” She sipped her drink. “Anyways… I quit. Decided to become a cop and, uh, dealt with the whole _Hot Tub High School_ thing until, um, until I became a detective,” another sip, “and _then_ I found a whole new way to ostracize myself.”

Lucifer frowned. “Ostracize yourself?”

Chloe shrugged and looked down. “There was… There was a case. A shooting on Palmetto Street where a cop got shot. I saw it differently than… pretty much everyone in my department. And I stuck my neck out… and it backfired. And now,” she raised her head, a self-deprecating smile on her face, “no one wants to work with me.”

A beat, then Lucifer spoke up.

“Well, I’m available,” he smiled.

Chloe’s expression softened. She took one long look at him as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Then she pointed at his face and said, without preamble, “There he is.”

His brows furrowed. “Who is?”

“… The guy I met eight years ago,” she murmured at last. “I was wondering where he’d gone.” Her eyes lowered. “Or if he was even real.”

A breath of air involuntarily escaped his lungs. He once again found that he wanted to say something, and again realized that he was at a loss for words.

Then Maze cut in.

“Too bad your little protégé isn’t around to collect the check,” she said and gestured to the TV. Both Chloe and Lucifer tuned in on the news.

 _“—soundtrack album for the movie_ Time Will Tell _has reached Number 15 on the Billboard charts and is still climbing. Song and record sales—”_

Chloe’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow.”

Lucifer turned to look at her. “What? What is it?”

“Delilah didn’t give that watch to the drug dealer.” She licked her lips. “Jimmy Barnes did.”

* * *

 

“Can you go any _slower_?” Lucifer demanded irritably from the passenger’s seat of the police cruiser.

“Speed limits are a thing, you know?” Chloe replied with a frown.

“Who cares?” He burst out. “The more time you waste, the more time the sweaty imp has to escape punishment!”

“Barnes won’t leave the city.”

“How sure are you?”

“Maybe because he’s earning a lot from the album sales? Or because his production studio is on the rise? Pick a reason. At any rate, he’s earning a lot and making it big here in LA. He won’t leave unless he’s sure there’s nothing left for him.”

Lucifer grudgingly accepted her reasoning. Chloe observed him from the corner of her eye.

“Come to think of it,” she started, “didn’t you use your desire mojo on him? Back when you questioned him at his wedding?”

Lucifer frowned. “I… attempted to, yes. But he avoided my gaze,” he scowled. “And it didn’t occur to me that he could have been lying.”

“Because 2Vile was the perfect scapegoat,” she nodded. “He had motive—Delilah cheated on him. And Barnes probably also knew about Eddie Deacon being their shared dealer, so he hired him to be the shooter.”

“And since the imp was broke and couldn’t pay the maggot, he gave away his watch—”

“Which Delilah gifted to him,” Chloe finished.

Lucifer’s smile was predatory. “Well _done_ , Detective.”

Her mouth quirked into a brief, but pleased, grin, before her seriousness returned. She drove into the open-air parking lot of Barnes’ studio. “Okay, so, since Jimmy Barnes knows you’re working with the police, he’s probably got his guard up. The plan is that I request a meeting with Barnes and make it sound like I just need to get his official statement at the precinct.” She parked across the building’s entrance then proceeded to shut down the engine. “Then I bring him to the car, handcuff him and shove him in the backseat. Simple,” she turned to Lucifer and saw him open the car door. “Did you hear a word I just said?”

Lucifer paused and turned to face her. “I’m sorry, what?”

Chloe sighed exasperatedly. “I _said_ , the plan is—” Movement by the building’s entrance caught her eye and she saw Barnes head towards them with a gun in hand.

“Lucifer, get down!” She shoved down his head and ducked with him just as bullets hit the front window of the vehicle. Chloe cursed under her breath and moved to open her car door. She used it as a shield as she scrambled outside. Then she unholstered her gun and waited for Barnes to stop shooting. When he did, she moved.

She made her shot just as Barnes pointed his gun at her. Her bullet struck him—he pulled the trigger—his shot went wide. Pain erupted on her shoulder and she fell onto the asphalt. Vaguely, she thought she could hear someone shout.

After a long moment, her hazy vision refocused on Lucifer’s face. There was warmth on her cheek and she realized that it came from his hand.

“Barnes?” She croaked.

“You shot him in the arm. He ran.”

Chloe took in deep breaths then gritted her teeth. Slowly, she raised her good arm and weakly pushed at Lucifer’s chest. “Go—Go after him.”

“Detective—” Lucifer’s hand on her cheek twitched. “Chloe—”

“Go!” She swallowed. “’m fine. Don… Don’t let ‘im… get away.”

She watched as his brown eyes burned red and felt the tension in her seep away.

“ _Go_.”

He nodded briskly and left.

Chloe’s breaths turned quick and shallow. The pain was starting to numb the rest of her senses, though she could feel blood sluggishly exit her body with every erratic beat of her heart. With her good hand, she applied pressure on the wound. Her vision whited out and she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

She continued to gasp for air.

After a moment, she mustered enough strength to grab her cruiser’s car seat and pull herself up to a seated position on the cement. Then she reached out with her shaking, bloody hand and grabbed her police radio.

“This is… Unit 831… requesting back-up… and an ambo… officer down, repeat, officer _down_ …” She rattled off her current location. “Jimmy Barnes… suspect for the murder of Delilah… on the run… armed and dangerous… requesting back-up… and ambo…”

Her fingers slackened their grip on the radio. Her eyes fluttered close and everything faded away.

* * *

 

When Lucifer returned with Barnes in tow, the man near-catatonic with fear, he found the Detective’s cruiser surrounded by other police cars and an ambulance. He watched as the paramedics loaded someone on a stretcher into the ambulance, closed the doors, and then drove out of the scene. Realization dawned on him and he dragged Barnes over to the nearest uniformed officer.

“Here’s your murderer, make sure he doesn’t get away,” Lucifer said as he shoved the reprobate at the officer. “Now, tell me, where’s that ambulance headed?”

The officer looked back and forth between Lucifer and Barnes with wide eyes. “I—He—Huh?”

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “The ambulance! Tell me which hospital that ambulance is going!”

The officer stuttered out the name.

“ _Thank_ you,” he said, and somehow made it sound like the officer was the one who should be grateful.

Then he turned on his heel and proceeded to hijack the Detective’s car.

He needed a ride to the hospital.

* * *

 

The Detective was in surgery.

When Lucifer found out, he stood in the waiting room and finally started to wonder _why_ he was there. He had no reason to be, no reason to come here as though he were _concerned_. Truthfully speaking, he and the Detective barely knew each other—disregarding the fact that she was the only human who knew who he was, and the fact that they had been intimate once upon a time, and the fact that she was the mother of his Child… Where was he going with this train of thought, again?

Ah, yes.

They were, ultimately, still _strangers_. Granted, he found her… fascinating. But he’d met many fascinating humans over the centuries. So really, he didn’t understand what he was doing—

“Daddy!” A voice (that will probably come to haunt him in his sleep) exclaimed.

Lucifer stared with wide eyes as the Child—his Child—Beatrice— _What in his Father’s name_ —ran to him and… _hugged_ him. Tiny arms attempted to wrap around his waist and he tensed at the action.

She looked up at him with shiny eyes and a wobbly chin. “Is… Is mommy okay? Are _you_ okay?”

Lucifer’s mouth appeared to work, it opened and closed as a mouth should, but for a moment, no sound was forthcoming. “I—I’m fine… Child. Your mother’s in… surgery. I was… waiting.”

Yes, that _was_ what he had been doing, wasn’t it? He was waiting to see if the Detective would be… okay.

“How… How did you get here?” He asked her.

Trixie removed one arm from his waist, much to his relief. She rubbed her nose then pointed to a man by the nurse’s station. “U-Uncle Danny brought me here! He was—He was babysitting me when he got the call that—that mommy was in the hospital.”

Lucifer stared at Detective Espinoza as the man finished his talk with a nurse and looked around the waiting area. “Uncle… Danny.”

Trixie nodded, and Lucifer belatedly realized that the grip she had on his suit jacket was bound to wrinkle it. He didn’t make her let him go, though. Children found comfort in touch, right? That was a thing? And her mother was in surgery and she was worried, so he should let the child have this bit of comfort, yes?

Dan spotted the two of them and hurried over. “Trix, what’re you doing? You shouldn’t bother—” he took a good look at the dark-haired man and his eyes widened. “Lucifer? Lucifer Morningstar?”

He forced a smile. “Espinoza,” he greeted.

Dan frowned. “What… What are you doing here?”

“He’s here for mommy!” Trixie spoke up, as though this should be obvious. She looked up at Lucifer keenly.

Lucifer swallowed. “Well… yes. More or less. I’m here to make sure the Detective will be… okay.”

Dan scoffed as he placed his hands on his hips. “Right. Of course you are.”

Lucifer bristled at the sarcasm. “I’m sorry, have I done something to _offend_ you?”

Dan looked ready to air out his grievances but then his eyes darted down to Trixie, who looked at both of them with mounting concern. He shifted uneasily. “Not here,” he said tersely. “Not _now_.”

Lucifer sneered. “Oh no, I daresay that there’s no better time than _now_. Come on, give me your best shot. You know you want to,” he caught the other man’s gaze.

Dan stared back.

“Go on now, Daniel Espinoza. Tell me _everything_ you desire to say.”

“You…”

“Yes?”

“You… slept with my fiancé,” he gritted out.

Lucifer blinked.

A dam seemed to have broken, and a torrent of words were released. “You slept with my fiancé and got her pregnant the _night_ she broke off our engagement. And then you left her to deal with it alone. You left her to raise Trixie _alone_ while she juggled being a cop. And then you come running back how many years later and she has no problem letting you into their lives,” he spat. “You don’t deserve them. You don’t deserve a _family_ with them.”

Lucifer winced and involuntarily stepped back.

“Hey!” Trixie yelled as she stepped forward. She angrily pushed at Dan, and it was more the shock at the action that had him move back than any actual strength. “Don’t talk to my daddy that way! If mommy and I want him to be a family with us then… then that’s what we _want_. You’re… You’re just being a bully!” Her voice broke and she made a sniffling sound.

Lucifer realized that she had begun to cry. The Child was crying.

The _Child_ was _crying_.

He panicked. Briefly, he thought of running, but then he remembered that he was the Child’s _father_ and that meant she needed him to do _something_. What—What would his Father do? No, bad idea. What would his Father _not_ do? Wait, that might be even worse. Dear old Dad was _very_ hands-off in his approach to parenting.

Alright then, if _he_ were a crying child, what would he have wanted his Father to do?

The thought left an acrid taste in his mouth. But then his panic slowly receded and made way for an even stranger feeling. Lucifer, having no better ideas, listened to it.

Tentatively, he touched Trixie’s back, and she looked up at him with a wet and red face that he tried _very_ hard not to grimace at. Then, with much uncertainty, he brought her to his side, and she immediately raised her arms to wrap around his waist again. She buried her face into his abdomen and he felt her tears seep into his clothes.

With a furrow between his brows, he slowly rubbed her back. In response, she snuggled further into him.

When Lucifer raised his head, he found Dan looking at them in shock.

And when Dan saw that Lucifer’s eyes were on him, he looked away. “I… I’ll go.”

And he left.

At some point, Lucifer relocated Trixie and himself to the benches in the waiting area. They stayed there until Chloe’s surgery finished and she was moved to a hospital room.

The doctor told them she would be okay.

* * *

 

Chloe woke up to the sound of a heart monitor, the smell of antiseptic, the sight of bright lights, and a nosegay of fuzzy-looking flowers. She blinked to refocus her vision and found both Lucifer and Trixie seated at her bedside. It was, admittedly, a sight she never thought she’d see.

“Look who’s back,” Lucifer smirked.

“Mommy!” Trixie whisper-yelled as she got up to her knees on the hospital chair to get a better look at her mother.

Chloe’s mouth stretched into a smile and she shifted in her bed. She grunted when she felt a twinge in her shoulder, but as it was faint, she deduced that she was probably on the good drugs. She looked at the odd duo next to her. “How… How long have I been out?”

The two shared a look then sighed in unison. “Three years,” they said solemnly.

Chloe raised an eyebrow and tried to hold back a laugh. “Uh-huh… So I guess that’s why Trixie looks like she’s still seven years old?”

Both of them pouted. Trixie turned to slap Lucifer on the arm. “I _told_ you we should have gone with three months.”

“How was I to know you’re supposed to look different in three years?” He scowled.

“Mommy, daddy doesn’t know how kids age,” Trixie whined.

“Aww… He’ll learn, monkey,” Chloe soothed. “He’s only ever dealt with adults before, you know?”

Trixie’s nose scrunched. “Eww.”

Lucifer adopted an appropriately annoyed appearance in the face of their teasing. “Both of you _do_ realize that I’m the Devil, yes?”

The two shared a look. “Y… es,” Chloe nodded thoughtfully. “Mm-hmm,” Trixie agreed.

Lucifer heaved a put-upon sigh, but neither were fooled, as they could see how his mouth quirked up without his permission.

“Hey… What happened with Jimmy?” Chloe suddenly asked, looking expectantly at Lucifer. Trixie also turned to face him.

Lucifer’s mouth opened, “Jimmy…” He sighed. “Well, Jimmy got what he deserved.”

Chloe frowned. “What does that—”

“ _And_ I left him with an officer, so he’s probably also in custody,” he hurriedly added. “And most likely _won’t_ be arranging any unfortunate shootings anytime soon.”

“You guys caught a bad guy _together_?” Trixie was awed as she looked back and forth between them. “Cool!”

Lucifer’s smirk returned. “Yes, it was _cool_. I’m quite the invaluable crime-fighting tool, wouldn’t you say?”

“The Devil as a crime-fighting tool,” Chloe shook her head. “Still a weird concept.”

“You’re like a superhero!” Trixie piped up.

Lucifer grimaced. “You’re giving me far too much credit, child.”

Trixie frowned and got into Lucifer’s face. “You’re a _superhero_ ,” she said, as though she could make him agree with that alone.

Lucifer glanced behind the Child to Chloe, his eyes asking for a little help.

Chloe only smiled back innocently. His eyes narrowed in response. Then he grabbed Trixie by the armpits, set her down on the floor, and took out a hundred-dollar bill from his suit jacket. “Here, why don’t you run to the vending machine and buy every tooth-rotting thing your little heart desires?”

Trixie’s eyes sparkled. She grinned widely as she took the money and ran out of the room. Chloe and Lucifer watched her go.

“… You’re going to regret doing that,” Chloe half-heartedly warned him.

Lucifer turned to her with confusion. “What do you mean?”

She only shook her head in response.

Lucifer frowned but shook off her oddness easily enough. “Well, now that the Child is gone… I have a question for you.”

Her brows furrowed. “Alright.”

“Why did you push me down?”

The furrow deepened. “… I’m sorry, _what_?”

“Right before Jimmy shot at the car, you pushed me down. I found it odd because you knew very well that bullets would have no effect on me. Yet… you pushed me down anyways.” He tilted his head. “Why?”

Chloe thought back. Her memory was a little blurry, but she got the impression that she did do as he said. “I… guess I wasn’t really thinking straight. It must’ve slipped my mind.”

Lucifer scoffed. “’Slipped your mind’?” He parroted. “How could you possibly forget about my invulnerability? That’s like forgetting that I’m the Devil.”

She stared at him. “Then… I guess that’s what happened.”

He gaped at her.

“You’re…” She shook her head. “You’re nothing at all like what I expected the Devil to be.”

“I…” He blinked rapidly. “Is that… What is that?” He forced a laugh. “A good thing? A bad thing?”

“It’s… something. Not sure if it’s good or bad yet, though.”

Lucifer shook his head. “I don’t… I _really_ don’t understand you.”

“What a coincidence,” she smiled faintly. “Neither do I. So…” She raised her hand to touch his arm. “I guess I look forward to getting to know you.”

He glanced down at her hand. After a moment, he cleared his throat. “Yes, well—”

Loud, familiar, and much too ecstatic laughter travelled down the hallway. Lucifer’s expression turned befuddled and mildly concerned.

Chloe bit her lip. “Now. I’m going to fake being asleep and let _you_ handle the mess you made.”

“Mess?” He spluttered. “What mess?”

“Hope you enjoy dealing with a seven-year-old on a sugar high,” Chloe said as she closed her eyes and settled into bed, a smile now firmly in place on her visage.

Lucifer paled. “No. Detective, you _wouldn’t_.”

Her smile only widened.

“ _Detective_!”

Maybe this wouldn’t be a complete dumpster fire on a train wreck.

* * *

 

Later that night, Lucifer—back in his Corvette after he retrieved it from Jimmy Barnes’ wedding venue—drove up to Lux. He threw his keys to the valet, but then just as he did, time began to slow. His eyes went heavenward accusingly. “Bloody Hell,” he groaned as he turned on his heel.

And there Amenadiel stood, in the middle of the road. Lucifer briefly wished his brother’s powers would fail _just enough_ so he could get run over by a truck—or maybe even something heavier. As it was, time still moved slothfully, so he walked onto the road and stopped a meter away from the angel.

“What do you _want_ from me?” He demanded.

“I’ve been watching you, Lucifer,” Amenadiel said.

Lucifer tensed. “You perv,” he jibed, but in his mind, he grew troubled. Did Amenadiel know about—?

“And I’m not sure I like what I see. You’re showing restraint… mercy… even _kindness_. Or at least enough of it to fool a child into showing trust and affection for you.”

“ _Fool_ a—?” Lucifer laughed as he shoved his hands into his trouser pockets. _A_ child, he said. Not _your_ child. Amenadiel didn’t know, Lucifer realized, because if he did, then he would be even more insufferable. “Scared I’m turning my back on the dark side, bro?”

“Lucifer, there is a _balance_ here that we must maintain. I strongly suggest you do what I told you to do… and go back to Hell.”

“Don’t threaten me, Amenadiel,” Lucifer warned. “I mean, you don’t want to start a war.”

Amenadiel shook his head. “If a war is what it takes to maintain the balance between our stations, then I would _love_ a war.”

From above, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled across the heavens.

Lucifer only chuckled. How ominous of Father.

“Oh, Luci,” Amenadiel sighed. “My hatred for you grows stronger with every visit. I really don’t understand how Mikey could do this for so long.”

The mention of his twin, as always, made Lucifer’s expression harden. “Yes, well… You and I both know what I did to _him_.” His smiled sharply. “How is he, by the way? He hasn’t tried to visit me in a while.”

Amenadiel’s face closed off even more. “You don’t have the right to ask about him,” he said severely. “And keep your threats to yourself. As you are now, I am more powerful than you.”

Lucifer sneered. “Debatable.”

Amenadiel spread his wings and Lucifer recoiled. He tensed in preparation for a fight. It would be difficult to defend against wings while he himself was wingless, but it was possible. For him, anyways.

But Amenadiel only used them to fly away.

“I look forward to eating your heart one day!” He called out mockingly.

Then he briskly turned and walked back to his club. He didn’t fancy getting run over.

* * *

 

Seated at his bar, Lucifer played with his Pentecostal coin. After a while, he spoke.

“I sense your disapproval, Maze. What is it?”

From the shadows, the Demon emerged with a bottle of alcohol and an empty glass. “I just can’t understand why you’d put so much effort in for a _human_. Even agreeing to spending time with her spawn,” she jeered and set the bottle down with a clink.

Lucifer glanced at her as she walked behind the bar. Part of him wanted to share with her how the Detective’s spawn was also _his_ spawn, but he wasn’t the only one with parental issues. Maze was more likely to cut off any problems at the source than deal with them constructively—which, really, was the last thing he currently needed. The Child was a problem in a way, yes, but it was more of a _raising_ the Child problem than the Child _existing_ problem.

“Well… she’s different,” was all he could say. “I don’t quite understand it but everything with her is… different. It’s vexing but it’s also… fulfilling.”

Maze leaned on the bar top. “Maybe it’s not _her_ that’s different.”

Lucifer chuckled. “Is this where I’m supposed to ask…” His coin landed in his hand. “‘Whatever do you mean?’”

“I’m worried the humans are rubbing off on you,” she said, ignoring his dry deflection. “Stop caring.”

Lucifer frowned.

“You’re the Devil.” And with one last, firm look, she walked away.

“Yes, I am,” he softly said to himself. His mind momentarily returned him to the hospital, where he, the Detective, and the Child had shared a pleasant morning, talking and laughing together. All the while, they knew who he was.

 _‘And they don’t care.’_ The thought inexplicably raised his spirits, before another one came and dashed them, _‘Because they don’t know you. They don’t know what you’ve done.’_

He finished his drink, grabbed his jacket, and made his way to the elevator.

Maybe he should set up an appointment with Dr. Martin. He hadn’t met a human who could tell him what he felt, before.

* * *

 

“Okay, here’s the deal. We can have as much naked cuddle time as you desire, _but_ … you’re going to have to listen to me, too. There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you. You know, just an… existential dilemma or two… maybe a bit of unplanned parenthood thrown in there. Deal?”

“Yes.”

“Lovely.”

* * *

 

 

.

.

.

_“Jimmy… Well, Jimmy got what he deserved.”_

“I have to warn you, Detective, he’s heavily medicated. I doubt he’d be able to string two words together right now, much less have a conversation.”

Chloe shook her head as she followed the doctor down the dimly lit hall. “That’s not a problem,” she said. Her arm was cradled in a sling and she still wore a patient wristband—a sign that she was discharged from the hospital only today.

The doctor gestured to the plastic-walled cell-like room and then moved to leave. Chloe thanked her, then approached the transparent wall. Jimmy Barnes sat on the bed; it was the only piece of furniture in the room. His back was to her.

“Hey Jimmy,” Chloe called to him. “So this is where you ended up, huh?”

She waited for a moment.

“… Mind telling me how this happened?”

Silence.

Chloe sighed. She brought her good arm up to hold onto her elbow wrapped in the sling. “I need to know what happened that day, Jimmy.”

More silence. Jimmy didn’t even look like he was breathing. She knocked on the glass.

“What happened to you, Jimmy?”

Nothing.

Chloe was getting really tired of the silence. And she hated how the not knowing twisted her gut.

“Jimmy, what did Lucifer do to you?”

And suddenly, Jimmy Barnes came to life. He twitched, then twisted his head around. “Lucifer?” He got up from the bed and ran to the plastic wall. “Is he here? Tell me he’s not here!” He begged.

“No,” Chloe leaned back, wide-eyed. “N-No, Jimmy, he’s not here.”

A litany of denials left Jimmy’s mouth. His eyes were wild as he looked everywhere.

“Jimmy, he’s not here,” Chloe tried again.

“I know he’s here. I can’t get away. I can’t get away from him!” His voice rose to a scream and he banged his head on the wall.

“Jimmy, stop! Stop, you’re safe here! Jimmy!”

Blood stained the divide and Chloe could only stare in wide-eyed horror. Doctors rushed to her side and she backed away as they unlocked the door. They moved to restrain Jimmy.

“No, let go of me!” He yelled as he struggled. “Let go of me, I have to get away, I’m not SAFE! None of us are SAFE! And none of you know! None of you get it!” He laughed hysterically. “He’s the DEVIL!”

They strapped him to his bed.

“HE’S THE DEVIL!”

And Jimmy’s words continued to ring in Chloe’s ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is actually an early update. I planned to post this on the 27th but some things have come up in my personal life so I decided to post this chapter early. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

**Author's Note:**

> "Write the fic you want to read," they said.
> 
> Me: *looks at this monstrosity* what have i done


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